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Language Reference
4
Arguments
name — The name of the variable, prefixed with the ampersand (&) character. The name must conform to
the rules for names described in “Names” on page 7.
type — Constant value specifying the variable type, either integer, measure, string, Boolean, or an array
type. The array types are color, arrayinteger, arraymeasure, arraycurrency, arrayBoolean, arraystring or
directory. Once a type is assigned to a variable, it cannot be changed, unless the variable is redefined.
value — An initial value for the variable, of the same type as the variable (for example if the variable is of
type integer, this value must be an integer). This value can also be a valid PlanetPress Talk expression. In
the case of any array variable other than a color array or an array of type directory, the initial value can be
either the number of elements you want the array to contain, or the set of values you want the array to
contain. In the former case you assign values to the array elements in subsequent commands. In the latter
case, you separate each value by a comma, and enclose the complete set of elements in square brackets.
In the case of a string array, you must also quote each of the array elements. In an array of type directory,
you specify the pathname to the folder and the file name filter you want to apply to each of the files in that
folder; this in turn determines the number of elements in the array.
Code Sample Example
define( &customer_name, string, 'Smith' )
define( &invoice_number, integer, strtoint(@(1,1,10)) )
define( &left_margin, measure, 1.5 )
define( &is_bottom, boolean, (&current.line > 50) )
define( &my_array,arrayinteger,[12,3,76,109,4] )
define( &my_array,arrayinteger, 5 )
define( &prices,arraycurrency, 6)
define( &greetings,arraystring,['hello','bonjour','ola'] )
define( &mustard,color,[0,12,84,16] )
define( &image_paths, directory, 'c:\\images\\*.JPG' )
define( &cost, currency, 0.00 )
DefineData (procedure)
Specifies the data file to use for data selections.
Syntax
definedata( path )
Argument
path — String value specifying the path of the data file.