Introduction to Process Language › Process Commands › Coding Considerations

Coding Considerations

Process commands are coded by using syntax specific to each command. The following general coding considerations apply to command statements:

• A command statement can be coded in any column and continue through column 72.
• A statement can be coded on one or more lines. The following considerations apply:
  • No continuation character is required.
  • More than one command can be coded on a single line, with the exception of the INCLUDE command.
  • Extend strings to the next line by coding up to and including column 72 of one line, and continuing in column 1 of the next line.
• The command must always appear first, followed by command parameters, if any.
• Parameters must be separated from each other and from the command by one or more blanks or commas.
• Each statement must be terminated with a period.
• Blank lines can be used to improve readability.
• Commas and blanks can be inserted anywhere between command parameters to improve readability, but cannot be used as a null place holder in a list in a command, such as:

  wrong ►   LINK TO PROGRAM XYZ USING (REC1,,REC2)
  
  wrong ►   INITIALIZE RECORDS (REC1,,REC2).
  

  Commas and blanks cannot be used in a built-in function.

• Comments in CA ADS statements are specified by using an exclamation point followed by the comment text. The following considerations apply:
  • All characters between the exclamation point and the end of the line are considered part of the comment.
  • A comment can be terminated before the end of the line by using a second exclamation point. All characters following a second exclamation point are considered to be part of a command.
• Comments within SQL statements are specified by using two hyphens (--) at the beginning of the comment.

  All characters between the hyphens and the end of the line are considered part of the comment.

  EXEC SQL.
  SELECT * FROM PROD.EMPLOYEE WHERE EMP_ID > 5555;
  --Selecting employees having consultant ids
  END-EXEC.
  

• A statement can include a quoted string of up to 255 characters.
• Quotation marks appearing within a quoted string must be coded as two consecutive single quotation marks.