General Syntax of EQUEL Statements
All EQUEL statements must be preceded by a pair of number signs:
##EQUEL_statement
The number signs must be the leftmost characters on the line, except in languages that require line numbers. (If you are programming in a language that uses line numbers, see the Embedded QUEL Companion Guide for the correct format.) The EQUEL preprocessor ignores lines that do not begin with "##".
EQUEL statements can be continued across multiple lines; each continuation line must begin with "##". For example:
##retrieve (sal = e.salary, ename = e.empname)
##where e.empnum = 23
To continue a string literal to the next line, precede the continuation line with a backslash () and omit the "##". For example:
##append to employee (empname = "john jones")
EQUEL does not require statement terminators. However, if your host language uses a statement terminator, you can use it to terminate EQUEL statements.
EQUEL comments can appear only on lines that begin with "##". EQUEL comments are delimited by "/*" and "*/". You can also use the host language format to place comments in an EQUEL program.
String literals in EQUEL statements must follow the rules of the host language.
Last modified date: 08/14/2024