The Variable Menu About the variable menu. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
When you pick an option from the variable menu or, you press one of the key combinations to display the variables contained in your program, a window will appear, the Variables window.
This window will only appear if it is not already open. It will contain a list of variables.
LOCAL variables will only be shown for the current procedure/function as they are only visible in the current function/procedure.
STATICs will appear only for the current function/procedure - if they are declared within the current function/procedure, or one of a higher level but within the current source code .PRG. - give or take a few!
PUBLICs will just appear - whether you want them or not. You do you're best to get rid of them, but the keep coming back, just like Volvo's with their lights on during bright sunshine.
PRIVATEs will appear only if they are declared within the current source code .PRG or any level above the current function/procedure.
For each variable entry in the variable window, you will also see the variable's length, type and whether it is a PUBLIC, PRIVATE, LOCAL or STATIC.
You may change to the variable window (Alt-3) and edit the variable. To do this move the highlight bar to the variable that you wish to edit, using the arrow keys, and press the ENTER key on the variable window.
The top line of the variable window ┐ shows you the different variable │ groups that you have requested to │ be displayed and the number of │ each currently in scope.│ ┌──────────┬─────┴────┬──────────┐ │ │ │ │ ┌─ 3 Variables (Locals:4, Statics:0, Privates:0, Publics:1┐ │SWITCH <Local, U> : NIL ↑ │aSettings <Local, A> : [80] {" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ █ │aValues <Local, A> : [20] {32.34, 193.05, 34.50, 12.30, 5█ │lDecode <Local, L> : .F. █ │oCol <Local, O> : { TBCOLUMN of 'Reference No.' } █ │oBrowse <Local, O> : { TBROWSE with 30 Columns } █ ┌────│GETLIST <Public, A> : [0] {} ↓ │└←██████████████████▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒→┛ │ └───── Different Variables are displayed in different colours.
You may then edit the variable. Press the Esc key to abort the edit or press the ENTER key to accept the changes.
If a variable is an array, then the array items will be displayed on the screen which you may scroll up and down to select and item to display. If there are more item in the array than can be seen in the window, then the list will scroll.
If an item within the array is a variable, you will be able to edit it. If an item is an array, then an array will be displayed and you may scroll up or down selecting choosing items as you wish.
If an item within an array element ia an object when you press ◄──┛ on it, the object browser will be called.
If a variable or an array element is an object, if you press ◄──┛ on it the object browser will appear.
The Object browser allows you to view and edit objects. The display is divided up into 3 sections: the object hierarchy, the methods for the current object and the variables for the current object.
The object hierarchy contains a list of the objects and any objects that it inherits from. You may cursor up and down this tree-root like structure. As you cursor up and down, the methods and instance variables change to reflect the change of objects.
You may use the <TAB> key to cycle between each of these three sections. For further information please refer to the Variables Window section under the Windows item of the User Manual menu.
Alongside the Method names and Variable names you may see some letter - these letters have the following meaning:
E - Exported H - Hidden P - Protected R - Read Only
To view the menu picture again, press <ESC> and use the ↑ or ↓ keys to move the guide's highlight bar to the menu item that you wish to see information about, and press ◄──┛.
The hot-key combination for this menu is <Alt><B>.