Preface

Purpose

This reference describes ABL (Advanced Business Language), which is the OpenEdge programming language for building business applications. It covers all ABL statements, functions, phrases, operators, preprocessor directives, special symbols, widgets, handles, classes, interfaces, enumerations, attributes, methods, properties, and events.

Audience

This reference is intended for programmers who develop applications using ABL and for anyone who needs to read and understand ABL code.

Organization

This reference consists of the following sections:

• A dictionary of ABL statements, functions, phrases, operators, preprocessors, and special symbols.
• A dictionary of ABL widgets.
• A dictionary of ABL handles.
• A dictionary of ABL attributes and methods (for handles).
• A dictionary of ABL handle-based object events.
• A dictionary of ABL classes, interfaces, and enumerations.
• A dictionary of ABL properties and methods (for classes).
• A dictionary of ABL class events and event methods.
• An index of ABL keywords.

Documentation conventions

See Documentation Conventions for an explanation of the terminology, format, and typographical conventions used throughout the OpenEdge content library.

Structure of reference entries

Each ABL element reference description includes some subset of the following information:

• Platform-restriction notations
• A purpose or description of the language element
• Block properties for all block statements
• Data-movement diagrams for all data-handling statements

Platform-restriction notes

Some language elements and features of ABL do not apply to all software platforms—operating systems, user interfaces, and database management systems—that OpenEdge supports. The documentation tries to note each such platform restriction with the language element title. Some language elements apply to SpeedScript programming and some do not; the documentation indicates which language elements do not apply with a note in the language element description. You can consider a language element as supported for all interfaces, on all operating systems, and for SpeedScript unless otherwise indicated in the language element description. The platform restriction notes that appear in the documentation include the following:

• AppServer only

  The element or feature applies only to the OpenEdge AppServer.

• Character interfaces only

  The element or feature applies only to the character interfaces that OpenEdge supports.

• Graphical interfaces only

  The element or feature applies only to the graphical interfaces that OpenEdge supports.

• NT and UNIX only

  The element or feature applies only to the Windows and UNIX versions that OpenEdge supports.

• ORACLE only

  The element or feature applies only to the ORACLE versions that OpenEdge supports.

• PAS for OE only

  The element or feature applies only to the Progress Application Server for OpenEdge.

• UNIX only

  The element or feature applies only to the UNIX versions that OpenEdge supports.

• Windows only

  The element or feature applies only to the Windows versions that OpenEdge supports.

• Windows only; Graphical interfaces only

  The element or feature applies only to the graphical interfaces of the traditional OpenEdge GUI for the Windows versions that OpenEdge supports.

• Windows only; GUI for .NET only

  The element or feature applies only to the .NET forms, controls, or other .NET objects for the Windows versions that OpenEdge supports.

For a complete list of the software platforms that OpenEdge supports, see the OpenEdge Platform & Product Availability Guide.