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Terminator
An EQUEL/C statement does not need a statement terminator. It is conventional not to use a statement terminator in EQUEL statements. However, you can use the C statement terminator, the semicolon (;), at the end of EQUEL statements because the preprocessor ignores it.
For example, the preprocessor considers the following two statements as the same:
##  sleep 1
and
##  sleep 1;
EQUEL statements that are made up of a few other statements, such as a display loop, only allow a semicolon after the last statement. For example:
##   display empform            /* No semicolon here */
##   initialize                 /* No semicolon here */
##   activate menuitem "Help"   /* No semicolon here */
##   {
##     message "No help yet";   /* Semicolon allowed */
##     sleep 2;                 /* Semicolon allowed */
##   }
##   finalize;  /* Semicolon allowed on last statement */
When using a retrieve loop, place a semicolon after the retrieve statement to disassociate the loop code inside the braces from the retrieve statement itself. Variable declarations made visible to EQUEL follow the normal C declaration syntax. Thus, you must terminate variable declarations in the normal way for C, with a semicolon.
Last modified date: 04/03/2024