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declare_declare_a_user_defined_symbol_.htm
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#DECLARE( symbol [, type ] ) [, MULTI ] [, UNIQUE ] [, SAVE ]

#DECLARE( symbol [, parentsymbol] [, type ] ) [, MULTI ] [, UNIQUE ] [, SAVE ]

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#DECLARE Explicitly declares a user-defined symbol.
symbol The name of the symbol being declared. This must meet all the requirements of a user-defined symbol. This must not be a #PROMPT symbol or a variable in the same scope.
parentsymbol Specifies the parent of the symbol, indicating its value is dependent upon the current value in another symbol. This must be a multi-valued symbol. You may specify more than one parentsymbol if the symbol is dependent upon a set of symbols. This allows implicit multi-dimensional arrays.
type The data type of the symbol: LONG, REAL, or STRING. If omitted, the data type is STRING.
MULTI Specifies the symbol may contain multiple values.
UNIQUE Specifies a multi-valued symbol that cannot contain duplicate values. The values are stored in ascending order. This implicitly declares the symbol as multi-valued, the MULTI attribute is not required.
SAVE Specifies the value(s) in the symbol are saved between source generation sessions. A symbol with the SAVE attribute may only be declared in the #APPLICATION area.

The #DECLARE statement explicitly declares a user-defined symbol. This may contain a single value or multiple values. All user-defined symbols must be explicitly declared with #DECLARE except those declared on #GROUP parameters, and #PROMPT or #EQUATE statements.

The MULTI attribute declares the symbol as multi-valued. This allows the #FIX, #FOR, #ADD, #DELETE, #SELECT, and #FREE statements to operate on the symbol.

The UNIQUE attribute ensures all instances of a multi-valued symbol to be unique and sorted in ascending sequence. When UNIQUE is specified, MULTI is not required. The #ADD statement builds the symbol values in sorted order and only allows a single instance of every value in the symbol when each entry is added.

If the #DECLARE statement contains one or more parentsymbol parameters, the user-defined symbol is dependent on the parentsymbols. This means a separate instance (or instances, if multi-valued) of the symbol is available for each instance of the parentsymbol. If there are no parentsymbol parameters, it is independent.

#DECLARE may be used to create dependent symbols. The parentsymbol must be a multi-valued symbol, whetherit is a built-in or user-defined symbol.

The SAVE attribute causes a symbol's value(s) to be saved at the end of source generation and restored when the #DECLARE statement is eXEcuted at the beginning of the next source generation session. A symbol with the SAVE attribute may only be declared in the #APPLICATION section.

Example:

#APPLICATION('Sample One')

#DECLARE(%UserSymbol),SAVE                  #!Value saved after generation

                                           #! and restored for next generation

#DECLARE(%ModuleFile,%Module),UNIQUE,MULTI  #!Level-1 dependent symbol

#DECLARE(%ModuleFilePut,%ModuleFile)        #!Level-2 dependent symbol

#DECLARE(%ModuleFileDelete,%ModuleFile)     #!Second Level-2 dependent symbol

#DECLARE(%FileList),MULTI                   #!Multivalued symbol

#DECLARE(%FieldListID,%FileList,LONG),UNIQUE

#DECLARE(%FieldList,%FieldListID)

#DECLARE(%FieldListType,%FieldListID)

#DECLARE(%Dest)                             #!implicitly STRING

#DECLARE(%Char, STRING)                     #!explicitly STRING

#DECLARE(%Idx,LONG)                         #!explicitly LONG

#DECLARE(%LnS,LONG)                         #!ditto

See Also:     #FIX ,#FOR ,#ADD ,#DELETE ,#FREE ,EQUATE

declare_declare_a_user_defined_symbol_.htm.txt · Last modified: 2021/04/15 15:57 by 127.0.0.1