1. Introduction : Conventions
 
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Conventions
The following terminology distinctions are made when dealing with language items:
• A command is an operation that you execute from an OpenROAD menu or at the operating system level.
• A statement is an operation that you place within a program or called procedure. Statements can be written in OpenROAD's fourth-generation language (4GL), a database query language (such as SQL), or a 3GL (like C or COBOL).
When representing language elements in discussion text, the following conventions are used:
Convention
Usage
UPPERCASE
Indicates constants (for example, TRUE, FALSE, and FB_DIMMED)
lowercase
Indicates 4GL keywords and statements (for example, begin keyword and callproc statement)
italic, lowercase
Indicates a variable name (for example, cursor_variable)
Mixed Case/Initial Capitalization
Indicates class names, attributes, methods, or events (for example, DataStream class, ClientData attribute, FetchRow method, and WindowResized event)
When representing syntax, the following conventions are used:
Convention
Usage
Boldface
Indicates keywords, symbols, or punctuation that you must type as shown
Italic
Indicates a variable name for which you must supply an actual value—this convention is used in explanatory text and syntax
Italic, underline
Indicates a variable name which can be used in a statement either dynamically (when you run the application) or statically (when you create the application)
[ ] (square brackets)
Indicates an optional item
{ } (curly braces)
Indicates an optional item that you can repeat as many times as appropriate
| (vertical bar)
Indicates a list of mutually exclusive items (that is, you can select only one item from the list)
The following example illustrates the syntax conventions:
select [all | distinct]
resultexpression {, resultexpression}
from tablename [corrname] {, tablename [corrname]}
[where searchcondition]
[group by columnname {, columnname}]
[having searchcondition]