Copying Functions › Function Templates › Creating and Naming Referenced Functions

Creating and Naming Referenced Functions

The copy process first searches the target file for a function with a name matching that of the template function. Note that if the source function name contains *Template, it is replaced with the name of the target file before the search for matching names; for example, ‘Change *Template’ translates to ‘Change Customer’ for the Customer file.

Note: If the DBF functions (CHGOBJ, CRTOBJ and DLTOBJ) attached to the *Template file contain user-defined processing, you need to change their default names; otherwise, the default functions on the target file are used. This is true even if the default DBF functions are not yet been created for the target file.

• If a matching function is found, it is used if its function type is compatible based on the following table and if the function is current and not archived.

If the type is not compatible, a new function of the same type as the template function is created over the target file.

• A new function is created if the target function:
  • Does not exist
  • Is not current
  • Is an archived object
  • Is an incompatible function type

  The copy process automatically assigns names to new functions. If necessary the surrogate number of the new object is attached to the function name to make it unique.

  Note: It is important to set the names of *Template functions and avoid changing them because subsequent copies to the same target file create new functions if the original functions cannot be found by name.