Expressions

Numeric Constants

Numeric constants can be any decimal number. Some examples are:

• 7

• 0.8725

• -172.0036

String Constants

String constants can be delimited by using either single (') or double (") quotation marks. If a quotation mark occurs as part of a string, the string can be surrounded by the other delimiter type. As an alternative, you can include the delimiter twice. Some examples are:

• "This is a string constant."

• 'So is this.'

• 'She said, "This is a string constant."'

• "She said, ""This is a string constant."""

Use the following code to include a literal quotation mark as part of your string:

&cDblQuote = '"'; /* singlequote doublequote singlequote */

The following also produces a string with two double quotation marks in it:

&cDblQuote = """"; /* dquote dquote dquote dquote */

You can also directly embed the doubled double quotation mark in strings, such as:

&sImage = Char(10) | '<IMG SRC="%IMAGE(' | &pImageName | ')"';

Strings must be contained on a single line. If you need to create a multi-line string, you must use concatenation to connect the lines to be a single sting. For example, one method to do this is:

&string = "Line 1" | Char(10) | "Line 2" | Char(10);

Boolean Constants

Boolean constants represent a truth value. The two possible values are True and False.

Null Constant

Null constants represent an object reference value that does not refer to a valid object. This means that calling a method on the object or trying to get or set a property of it fails. The Null constant is just the keyword Null.

User-Defined Constants

You can define constants at the start of a PeopleCode program. Then you can use the declared constant anywhere that the corresponding value would be allowed. Constants can be defined as numbers, strings, or Boolean values.

User-defined constants can only be declared as Local.

The following is an example of user-defined constant declarations:

Constant &Start_New_Instance = True; 
Constant &Display_Mode = 0; 
Constant &AddMode = "A": 
Local Field &Start_Date; 
. . . 
MyFunction(&Start_New_Instance, &Display_Mode, &Add_Mode);

Record Field Reference Syntax

References to record fields have the following form:

[recordname.]fieldname

You must supply the recordname only if the record field and your PeopleCode program are in different record definitions.

For example, suppose that in a database for veterinarians you have two records, PET_OWNER and PET. A program in the record definition PET_OWNER must refer to the PET_BREED record field in the PET record definition as PET.PET_BREED.

However, a program in the PET record definition can refer to this same record field more directly as PET_BREED.

If the program is in the PET_BREED record field itself, it can refer to this record field using the caret (^) symbol.

The PeopleCode Editor replaces the caret symbol with the actual record field name.

You can also use object dot notation to refer to record fields, for example:

&FIELD = GetRecord(RECORD.PET_OWNER).GetField(FIELD.PET_BREED);

See Understanding Component Buffer Structure and Contents.

Legal Record Field Names

A record field name consists of two parts, the record name and the field name, separated by a period.

The field names used in PeopleCode are consistent with the field names allowed in the field definition. Case is ignored, although the PeopleCode Editor for the sake of convention, automatically formats field names in uppercase. A field name can be 1 to 18 characters, consisting of alphanumeric characters determined by your current language setting in Microsoft Windows, and characters #, @, $, and _.

A record name can be 1 to 15 characters, consisting of alphanumeric letters determined by your current language setting in Microsoft Windows, and characters #, @, $, and _.

Legal and Illegal Definition Names

Legal definition names, as far as definition name references are concerned, consist of alphanumeric letters determined by your current language setting in Microsoft Windows, and the characters #, @, $, and _.

In some cases, however, the definition supports the use of other characters. You can, for example, have a menu item named A&M stored in the menu definition even though & is an illegal character in the definition name reference. The illegal character results in an error when you validate the syntax or attempt to save the PeopleCode.

You can avoid this problem in two ways:

• Rename the definition so that it uses only legal characters.

• Enclose the name of the definition in quotation marks in the reference, for example: ITEMNAME."A&M"

The second solution is a commonly used workaround in cases where the definition name contains illegal characters. If you use this notation, the definition name reference is not treated as a string literal: PeopleTools maintains the reference the same way as it does other definition name references.