Syntax

Language Reference Guide : 1. Introduction : Conventions : Syntax

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Syntax

The following terminology distinctions are made when dealing with language items:

• A command is an operation that you execute from an OpenROAD Workbench 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 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)
MixedCase/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, underlined	Indicates a variable name that 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]