NMAKE32 allows substitutions in macro invocations that allow a user to change the value generated without changing the macro itself. The following syntax is used for macro substitutions:

     $(name: character-string1 = character-string2)

where name is the name of the macro whose value is being modified, character-string1 is character or characters between the colon ":" and the equal "=" sign, and character-string2 is the replacement character or characters after the equal "=" sign and before the closing parentheses ")". If character-string2 is null, .character-string1 is removed from name (that is, replaced by a null string).

Example:

The following macro:

    FILES = file1.z file2.z file3.z

followed by this macro substitution:

    $(FILES:.z=.c)

expands to the value:

    file1.c file2.c file3.c

The actual value of FILES remains unchanged.