The following table summarizes the syntax conventions.
| Convention | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | ExceptPrint ( ) | Keywords or required punctuation. Leave exactly as shown. |
| Italic | FileCode (hFile) | Arguments to be replaced with an expression that represents an actual value. |
| Bold italic | window.Invoke() | Windows (object) of the specified class. Replace with a window identifier. |
| Parentheses ( ) | Printf (sFormat, VaArgs) | Arguments for function or method. |
| Brackets [ ] | SYS_Kill (iPid [, isignal]) | Optional arguments. |
| Ellipses ( ... ) | access share-var [, share-var]... statements | Follows an element that can optionally be repeated. |
| Indentation | access share-var [, share-var]... statements | Indicates continuation of the statement on multiple lines indented another level. |
| = | iCode = Asc ( sString) | Items on the left of the = hold the return value of the method, function, or property. |
| Variable prefixes (I, b, n,w , ...) | iCode = Asc ( sString) | Indicates the data type of an argument or return value; for example, iCode is an INTEGER, sString is a STRING, bResult is a BOOLEAN, and wDialogBox is a WINDOW. For more information, see "Variable prefixes" next. |
Variables are specified in Hungarian notation, that is, prefixed with an abbreviation for the data type. The data types and abbreviations are as follows: anytype (a), agentoption (ao), boolean (b), dataclass (dc), datatype (dt), guitype (gt), handle (h), integer (I), number (n), point (p), real ®), rect (re), semaphore (se), string (s), string or integer (si), sbrange (sr), textpos (tp), textrange (tr), window (w), winclass (wc), winstate (ws) and wndtag (wt). Any of these types can be a list, such as list of string (ls) or list of window (lw). Any of these types can also be an array, such as array of anytype (aa) or array of string or integer (asi).