4 Data Variables and Data handling
Variable Names
Every variable name must abide by the following rules. They apply equally to both simple and array variables.
- A variable name is from 1 to 15 characters (see string variables below).
- The first character must be an uppercase (capital) letter.
- The remaining characters must be lowercase letters, digits, or the underscore character (_).
- Each string variable name must end with a dollar sign ($). Note that this $ is not counted as one of the possible 15 characters; therefore, string variable names may be up to 16 characters long, if the compulsory $ suffix is included.
- Variable names must be unique.
Some examples of legal numeric, string and user defined variable names are as follows:
- Numeric variable names
- X
-
- Data1
-
- Order_no
- String variable names
- A$
-
- Password$
-
- Name_address$
-
- City_state_zip$
- User defined variable names
- Customer.name
-
As a general rule, a variable name should be indicative of its contents. Use of the underscore character (_) will make the name more comprehensible.
Keyword names are always in upper-case. Thus a legal variable could have the same combination of letters as a keyword, as long as only the first letter of the variable name was uppercase. This feature is affected by Space Dependency; therefore, to ease confusion, it is suggested that variable names and keywords not be spelled identically.
Eloquence Language Manual - 19 DEC 2002