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Metacommand Summary
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Metacommand Summary
■ Metacommands are used to give the Visual Basic Compiler (BC.EXE) special
instructions. Metacommand declarations should always precede executable
statements in both form and code modules.
■ The following metacommands are supported in Visual Basic:
◄$DYNAMIC► Defines dynamic array storage as default
◄$FORM► Enables global access to a form's properties
◄$INCLUDE► Includes a file's information in processing
◄$STATIC► Defines static array storage as default
■ Multiple-module applications require the $FORM metacommand to share access
to a form's properties. See: ◄$FORM Metacommand►
■ Metacommands use the following syntax conventions:
{REM | '} $metacommand [argument] [$metacommand [argument]]...
• REM | ' REM statement or remark character ('); must
enclose all metacommands. See: ◄REM Statement►
• $metacommand One of the four Visual Basic metacommands:
$DYNAMIC, $FORM, $INCLUDE, or $STATIC.
• argument Required by $INCLUDE and $FORM only.
■ More than one metacommand can be given in a single comment. If specified,
multiple metacommands are separated by one or more white-space characters
(space or tab). For example:
REM $STATIC $INCLUDE: 'DATADEFS.BI'
REM $STATIC $INCLUDE : 'DATADEFS.BI'
' $STATIC $INCLUDE: 'DATADEFS.BI'
' $STATIC $INCLUDE : 'DATADEFS.BI'
■ If you want to refer to a metacommand in a description but do not want it
to execute, place a character that is not a tab or a space before the
first dollar sign on the line. For example, on the following line, both
metacommands are ignored:
REM x$STATIC $INCLUDE: 'DATADEFS.BI'