Document Conventions:conv
Document Conventions conv Variable Name Prefixes and Metasymbols

Variable Name Prefixes and Metasymbols Foundation

Metasymbols describe the general nature of basic syntax elements. A metasymbol is a data type designator followed by a logical descriptor. The data type designation is a prefix chosen from the table below.

Prefixes are always lowercase and logical descriptors are always capitalized. Logical descriptors describe the meaning of the argument the metasymbol represents. For example, cString represents any character string and cCompanyName is a string holding a company name. If an argument supports more than one data type a prefix symbol is specified for each datatype (WHEN blPreValid). If an argument is specified as a list of options separated by the '|' character then the parameter is polymorph. Each list element corresponds to one of the data types supported, and is specified with the respective prefix followed by the logical descriptor. For example, DbSelectArea( <nWorkArea> | <cAlias> ) --> NIL.

Argument types are specified using a general data type designator. If a character string must be defined as a literal character expression in parentheses, the corresponding metasymbol still is cString. However, the syntax which must be used to define the argument is specified in the description of the argument.

Metasymbol Prefixes
Type Prefix Description
a Array
b Code block
c Character expression
co Class object
d Date expression
e Interval
exp Expression of any type
l Logical expression
m Memo field
n Numeric expression
o Object
t Timestamp
u Undetermined
x Extended expression

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