I'm writing a macro for LibreOffice Calc in Basic in VBA compatibility mode. It complains when I use this line:
Const BASE = 3
BASIC syntax error.
Symbol expected.
and the syntax coloring seems to indicate that "BASE" is a keyword or reserved word. Other consts in the macro are accepted without issue. Also, this line is accepted in VBA in Excel.
I will change the name in order to avoid this problem, however I am unable to locate any documentation that references this as being any kind of reserved word. I assume it either has something to do with number bases or with the name of LO's database. However, words like "WRITER" and "CALC" don't act the same way - they seem to be accepted as names for constants. Note that my use of this word is not related to the database anyway.
Also, unfortunately, LO Basic doesn't seem to have an immediate mode (REPL) so I am unable to easily play with this word to determine what it's used for.
Can you point me toward some documentation for the keyword BASE?
Those are some good guesses, but incorrect as it turns out. The word is used as follows:
Option Base 1
It can be either 0 or 1 to denote which index refers to the first element of an array, as documented at https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/G11ntest/Documentation/BASIC_Guide/Arrays.
To discover this, I looked through the LibreOffice source code. The file /basic/source/inc/parser.hxx was helpful. This is the closest approximation of a list of keywords available, judging from this post.
Apparently, this statement was adopted from VBA: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/language/reference/user-interface-help/option-base-statement
Related
I have the following two lines of code:
Debug.Print Forms!DocLoader!DL_RowBox!DLR_FileName.Name
Debug.Print Forms!DocLoader!DL_RowBox.Form!DLR_FileName.Name
The second one, which I have seen recommended in almost every VBA reference, including the answer being suggested from SO as I type this, follows this structure:
Debug.Print Forms![Form Name]![Subform Control Name].Form![Control Name].Name
These two lines of code should produce the same result. However, the second, recommended syntax throws error 40036, "Application-defined or object-defined error" unless I am in design view. I cannot use it at runtime, but I have never seen this limitation mentioned in any of the reference documentation or forum posts I have looked at. The first line, using only default parameters, seems to work no matter the context.
With the second line, I have tried just about every combination of bang and period I can, and I have also tried enclosing field names in brackets, but the common denominator is that as soon as I reference ".Form" the application throws an error. Even something simple like ".Form.Caption" has thrown an error. So what I would like to know is:
Are there any other correct ways of referring to a subform's form properties, since I need these as well as its controls
Why would the first line execute correctly while the second, recommended one does not seem to work?
Running the compiler appears to have fixed the issue.
I want to search all programs - within a package - that use the statement:
modify itab_xyz from wa_itab_xyz
Preferably, the string should be searched with wild cards like itab*
for a range of itab_(values) like itab_abc, itab_def, itab_ghi
etc..
How do i do this in SAP ABAP?
Below is a screenshot of all programs within a package one can search from.
One possibility would be to use program RS_ABAP_SOURCE_SCAN.
You can restrict the selection by package and you can also enter a specific string to search for in the code.
I use the transaction code_scanner (program is afx_code_scanner).
The biggest problem with this program and the RS_ABAP_SOURCE_SCAN provided above is that they won’t find everything. IMO the most important missing component to them is implicit enhancements. They can be very impactful to system functions, and if you are searching for an error message or hard coded value skipping them could mean not finding something critical.
At the time I looked (about 7 years ago), I was unable to find a delivered tool that would actually scan all the code in the system. I ended up enhancing the code_scanner to look for enhancements, WDA components, BSP code, and forms code.
I don’t know if the open source component above includes those. At first glance it doesn’t seem to, but I don’t have time to really dig into it.
You could use a tool from the Galileo-Open Source library. This program searches ABAP Source, OTR-Texts, Message and Textpools for static Text, wildcard patterns or regex patterns.
ABAP-Coding:
https://github.com/galileo-group/galileo-abap-lib/blob/master/%23gal%23devtools_find_text.prog.abap
Textpool:
https://github.com/galileo-group/galileo-abap-lib/blob/master/%23gal%23devtools_find_text.prog.xml
It refers to some additional classes from the library, so you either need to copy these as well or just use ABAPgit to get the whole library. You can also contact me, so I can send you a transport containing the library.
Additional information (October 1, 2020):
I created a version of the report that you can copy/paste to the ABAP editor. It is too long to include it in the response, but you can find it here.
Do not forget to copy the text elements / selection texts.
Required Text Elements:
-----------------------
B00 Scope
B01 Search pattern
H01 Type
H02 Name
H03 Key
H04 Match
Required Selection Texts:
-------------------------
P_CASE Case-sensitive
P_DEVC Package
P_LANGU Language
P_MESS Messages
P_OTR OTR Texts
P_PATT Pattern
P_REGEX Regular expression
P_SOURCE ABAP sources
P_TPOOL Textpools
P_WILDC Wildcard pattern
The complete list of keywords that are legal in creating code templates in Netbeans would be accompanied by some documentation, making the "list" a reference. A line from the reference might look like:
${cursor} says to put the cursor at this point in the generated line
Working examples might be included in the reference, such as:
User-defined word to invoke the template: edfold
The template as it would appear in the Netbeans 8.2 RC > Tools > Options > Editor > Code templates tab:
${no-indent}//
// <editor-fold desc="***** ${cursor} *****" >
//
How it works: When I type edfold and hit the Tab key, the template is pasted into my document at the cursor position and looks like the following:
//
// <editor-fold desc="***** # *****" >
//
The cursor is positioned between the 5th and 6th asterisks that follow desc, so that I can then type whatever brief documentation that I wish, if any.
So where is the list of such keywords and their syntax and meaning? Such as:
${cursor}
${selection}
${no-indent}
${arg}
${Type}
and who knows how many more
It just hit me that there are OTHER keywords, two of which I unwittingly used above (I noticed them in someone else's code template and figured out how to use them):
desc
editor-fold
Surely there are other such identifiers to include in the reference.
By the way, the code template above is cute (or not) but is useless without a companion code template:
keypress:
endfold
Code template in editor:
// </editor-fold> ---------------- ${cursor} -------------------
Wherever the first inserted code template is located in your code, the second template must be below it. There is a "collapse" symbol "-" at the left of the first template. Clicking it collapses the code between the two templates. The symbol then changes to "+" and will expand the collapsed code when clicked.
EDIT
I just found this equivalent code template to the edfold and endfold pair just completed. Easier to code, up to a point, and harder to learn to use, but worth it, in the long run. Just highlight text to "hide" by folding, look for the line with the "Light Bulb", click Alt+Enter, and click "Code Folding". (Ctrl+Z to undo!)
But please see my (much better) Answer than this (was a) Question below.
Egg on my face... Googled topic, scanned all hits WAY too fast. In particular, "netbeans 8.2 code templates" pointed to this page involving PHP (think Java), which contained a lot of invaluable info about PHP that applies directly to Code Templates in Netbeans 8.2.
So, that link is part of a manual of sorts for learning how to create Code Templates for Netbeans 8.2 (in particular, and PHP in general).
The reference that I asked for--complete list of keywords (of the form ${ … } )--implies a list of all keywords or reserved words, like ${cursor} and ${selection} that permeate the list of provided Code Templates. But in a sense, that is the list. It is exactly those two Reserved Names. There are no others. Short list.
In the list of provided Netbeans Code Templates, there are a LOT of words that share the same $(...) syntax, but most are placeholder names or parameters that you decide the name and (probably-simple) meaning of.
If a code template contains, for example, class ${className}, the word class is Java code and ${className} is a parameter or placeholder. When the IDE expands the template, class is entered and ${className} turns into class_name, which the IDE automatically selects for editing, suggesting for you to enter the name of the new Java class being defined.
This non-trivial, but understandable, code template and much of what follows it explains much of the process for creating Code Templates. The heading Inserting the code template with code completion ends the explanation, but here is a sort of note of summary from further down:
The syntax of a "code template parameter" is a dollar sign, $, followed by the
parameter's definition between curly brackets {...}. Within this syntax, template
parameters have one of four forms:
* A reserved name that gives processing instructions to IDE (cursor or selection, only)
* An arbitrary placeholder name, such as ${SomeName}
* A descriptive parameter name [that hints at its meaning]
* Pre-defined parameters (??)
I set the culture to Hungarian language, and Chr() seems to be broken.
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = "hu-US"
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = "hu-US"
Chr(254)
This returns "ţ" when it should be "þ"
However, Asc("ţ") returns 116.
This: Asc(Chr(254)) returns 116.
Why would Asc() and Chr() be different?
I checked and the 'wide' functions do work correctly: ascw(chrw(254)) = 254
Chr(254) interprets the argument in a system dependent way, by looking at the System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ANSICodePage property. See the MSDN article about Chr. You can check whether that value is what you expect. "hu-US" (the hungarian locale as used in the US) might do something strange there.
As a side-note, Asc() has no promise about the used codepage in its current documentation (it was there until 3.0).
Generally I would stick to the unicode variants (ending on -W) if at all possible or use the Encoding class to explicitly specify the conversions.
My best guess is that your Windows tries to represent Chr(254)="ţ" as a combined letter, where the first letter is Chr(116)="t" and the second ("¸" or something like that) cannot be returned because Chr() only returns one letter.
Unicode text should not be handled character-by-character.
It sounds like you need to set the code page for the current thread -- the current culture shouldn't have any effect on Asc and Chr.
Both the Chr docs and the Asc docs have this line:
The returned character depends on the code page for the current thread, which is contained in the ANSICodePage property of the TextInfo class. TextInfo.ANSICodePage can be obtained by specifying System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ANSICodePage.
I have seen several problems in VBA on the Mac where characters over 127 and some control characters are not treated properly.
This includes paragraph marks (especially in text copied from the internet or scanned), "¥", and "Ω".
They cannot always be searched for, cannot be used in file names - though they could in the past, and when tested, come up as another ascii number. I have had to write algorithms to change these when files open, as they often look like they are the right character, but then crash some of my macros when they act strangely. The character will look and act right when I save the file, but may be changed when it is reopened.
I will eventually try to switch to unicode, but I am not sure if that will help this issue.
This may not be the issue that you are observing, but I would not rule out isolated problems with certain characters like this. I have sent notes to MS about this in the past but have received no joy.
If you cannot find another solution and the character looks correct when you type it in, then I recommend using a macro snippet like the one below, which I run when updating tables. You of course have to setup theRange as the area you are looking at. A whole file can take a while.
For aChar = 1 To theRange.Characters.count
theRange.Characters(aChar).Select
If Asc(Selection.Text) = 95 And Selection.Text <> "_" Then Selection.TypeText "Ω"
Next aChar
In this question, a user commented to never use the With block in VB. Why?
"Never" is a strong word.
I think it fine as long as you don't abuse it (like nesting)
IMHO - this is better:
With MyCommand.Parameters
.Count = 1
.Item(0).ParameterName = "#baz"
.Item(0).Value = fuz
End With
Than:
MyCommand.Parameters.Count = 1
MyCommand.Parameters.Item(0).ParameterName = "#baz"
MyCommand.Parameters.Item(0).Value = fuz
There is nothing wrong about the With keyword. It's true that it may reduce readibility when nested but the solution is simply don't use nested With.
There may be namespace problems in Delphi, which doesn't enforce a leading dot but that issue simply doesn't exist in VB.NET so the people that are posting rants about Delphi are losing their time in this question.
I think the real reason many people don't like the With keyword is that is not included in C* languages and many programmers automatically think that every feature not included in his/her favourite language is bad.
It's just not helpful compared to other options.
If you really miss it you can create a one or two character alias for your object instead. The alias only takes one line to setup, rather than two for the With block (With + End With lines).
The alias also gives you a quick mouse-over reference for the type of the variable. It provides a hook for the IDE to help you jump back to the top of the block if you want (though if the block is that large you have other problems). It can be passed as an argument to functions. And you can use it to reference an index property.
So we have an alternative that gives more function with less code.
Also see this question:
Why is the with() construct not included in C#, when it is really cool in VB.NET?
The with keyword is only sideswiped in a passing reference here in an hilarious article by the wonderful Verity Stob, but it's worth it for the vitriol: See the paragraph that starts
While we are on identifier confusion. The with keyword...
Worth reading the entire article!
The With keyword also provides another benefit - the object(s) in the With statement only need to be "qualified" once, which can improve performance. Check out the information on MSDN here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wc500chb(VS.80).aspx
So by all means, use it.