EGL statements

A statement is the smallest independent computational unit in EGL and specifies an action to be performed. In most cases, statements are run in sequence. EGL supports the following kinds of statements:
  • Variable or constant declarations, which reserve storage. Either kind of declaration can be anywhere in a function except in a block (described later). See Declaring variables and constants.
  • Imperative statements, which include:
    • Function calls, which direct processing to a function. See Calling a function.
    • Set-values blocks used to assign values to variables that you have already declared. See "Set-values blocks."
  • EGL keyword statements of the following kinds:
    • Data movement statements, which include assignments.
    • Conditional and loop statements, which direct program flow.
    • Transfer of control statements, which pass control from one program or handler to another.
    • Exception handling statements.
    • Data access statements, which interact with databases and other data sources. These statements depend heavily on the type of data access the you use; see the related reference at the end of the topic for any technologies that you might be using.
    • UI statements, which deal with user input and output. As with data access, the availability of these statements depends on the technologies you might be using. See the related reference at the end of the topic.

A statement either ends with a semicolon or with a block, which is a series of subordinate statements that act as a unit. The block terminates with an end delimiter.

Names in statements and throughout an EGL source file are case-insensitive. For example, record1 is identical to RECORD1, and both add and ADD refer to the same keyword. The following situations are exceptions:
  • The name of a main part such as a Program must be the same as the name of file, and the name is case sensitive.
  • The name of an EGL package is case sensitive.
  • Some UI technologies also have case issues.

See also Comments.

Statements, like parts, can include properties (name-value pairs with additional information about the statement). For each statement that has properties you can find a topic dealing with those properties.