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Glossary

 

call by reference

Arguments passed by reference to a procedure can be modified by the procedure. Procedures written in Basic are defined to receive their arguments by reference. If you call such a procedure and pass it a variable, and if the procedure modifies its corresponding formal parameter, it modifies the variable. Passing an expression by reference is legal in Basic; if the called procedure modifies its corresponding parameter, a temporary value is modified, with no apparent effect on the caller.

call by value

When an argument is passed by value to a procedure, the called procedure receives a copy of the argument. If the called procedure modifies its corresponding formal parameter, it has no effect on the caller. Procedures written in other languages, such as C, can receive their arguments by value.

comment

A comment is text that documents a program. Comments have no effect on the program (except for metacommands). In Basic, a comment begins with a single quote and continues to the end of the line. If the first character in a comment is a dollar sign ($), the comment is interpreted as a metacommand. Lines beginning with the keyword Rem are also interpreted as comments.

control ID

This can be either a text string, in which case it is the name of the control, or it can be a numeric ID. Note that control IDs are case-sensitive and do not include the dot that appears before the ID. Numeric IDs depend on the order in which dialog box controls are defined. You can find the numeric ID using the DlgControlID function.

function

A procedure that returns a value. In Basic, the return value is specified by assigning a value to the name of the function, as if the function were a variable.

label

A label identifies a position in the program at which to continue execution, usually as a result of executing a GoTo statement. To be recognized as a label, a name must begin in the first column and must be immediately followed by a colon (":"). Reserved words are not valid labels.

metacommand

A metacommand is a command that gives the compiler instructions on how to build the program. In Basic, metacommands are specified in comments that begin with a dollar sign ($).

name

A Basic name must start with a letter (A through Z). The remaining part of a name can also contain numeric digits (0 through 9) or an underscore character (_). A name cannot be more than 40 characters in length. Type characters are not considered part of a name.

precedence order

Siebel VB's method to determine which operators in an expression to evaluate first, second, and so on. Operators with a higher precedence are evaluated before those with lower precedence. Operators with equal precedence are evaluated from left to right. The default precedence order (from high to low) is numeric, string, comparison, logical.

procedure

A series of Siebel VB statements and functions executed as a unit. Both subprograms (Sub) and functions (Function) are called procedures.

subprogram

A procedure that does not return a value.

vartype

The internal tag used to identify the type of value currently assigned to a variant. This tag is one of the following:

Empty: 0
Null: 1
Integer: 2
Long: 3
Single: 4
Double: 5
Currency: 6
Date: 7
String: 8
Object: 9


 Siebel VB Language Reference
 Published: 18 June 2003