PARAMETERS

Purpose

Declare formal parameters to a procedure or program

Syntax

PARAMETERS <parameter list>

See Also

&, DECLARE, DO, LOCAL, LPARAMETERS, PARAMETERS(), PCOUNT(), PRIVATE, PROCEDURE, PUBLIC, SET LOCAL, SET PROCEDURE

Description

The PARAMETERS command declares a list of private memory variables or arrays, and assigns them the values of the actual parameters specified on a DO <program | procedure> WITH command. The parameters are initially declared as logicals with the value .F.. The PARAMETERS command must be the first executable command in a procedure or program. The PCOUNT() function is used to determine how many parameters were passed.

Parameters may be passed which are memory variables (i.e. they are not part of an expression). The contents of these memory variables will be updated when the procedure or program returns. This type of parameter passing is known as call by reference. This is the default for PROCEDURES and PROGRAMS. The '@' character may be placed in front of the memory variable name in User Defined Functions (UDF), so that they are called by reference.

If you do not wish the parameters to be modified by the called PROCEDURE or PROGRAM, you should enclose the memory variable in round brackets. This type of parameter passing is known as call by value. Any expressions that you specify as parameters are always call by value parameters. The default passing of parameters with User Defined Functions (UDF) is call by value. The limit to the number of parameters that you can pass is 40.

The private memory variables created by the PARAMETERS command are always released when the procedure or program returns.

To declare the parameters as local rather than private, use the LPARAMETERS command.

Example

procedure add
  parameters para1, para2
  result = para1 + para2
return
 
private result
do add with 10, 40
? result
        50