Is it possible to use hp variables or defined variables in ftp.

I need to ftp certain files to an NT server, but I need to create the
directory the files are to be ftp'd into. The directory name will be a date.
e.g. 19990908. I can build the directory name in my jobstream and save as a
variable. I then try to use the variable in ftp, using the 'mkdir' command
with the variable name. i.e. mkdir !dirdate. This does not work, as it just
creates a directory called !dirdate on the NT server.

How can I work around this?

Thanks

Gary Pastor