Glossary


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


argument

A constant, variable, or expression passed to a procedure.

array

A set of sequentially indexed elements having the same intrinsic data type. Each element of an array has a unique identifying index number. Changes made to one element of an array don't affect the other elements.

Boolean data type

A data type with only two possible values, True (equal to 1 for arithmetical operations and -1 for logical operations) or False (0). Boolean variables are stored as 16-bit (2-byte) numbers.

by reference

A way of passing the address of an argument to a procedure instead of passing the value. This allows the procedure to access the actual variable. As a result, the variable's actual value can be changed by the procedure to which it is passed. Unless otherwise specified, arguments are passed by reference.

Byte data type

A data type used to hold positive integer numbers ranging from 0û255. Byte variables are stored as single, unsigned 8-bit (1-byte) numbers.

by value

A way of passing the value of an argument to a procedure instead of passing the address. This allows the procedure to access a copy of the variable. As a result, the variable's actual value can't be changed by the procedure to which it is passed.

comment

Text added to code that explains how the code works. In ConceptDraw Basic, a comment line can start with either an apostrophe (') or with the Rem keyword followed by a space.

comparison operator

A character or symbol indicating a relationship between two or more values or expressions. These operators include less than (<), less than or equal to (<=), greater than (>), greater than or equal to (>=), not equal (<>), and equal (=). Additional comparison operators include Is and Like. Note that Is and Like can't be used as comparison operators in a Select Case statement.

compile time

The period during which source code is translated to executable p-code.

compile-time error

An error that occurs when code is compiling.

constant

A named item that retains a constant value throughout the execution of a program. A constant can be a string or numeric literal, another constant, or any combination that includes arithmetic or logical operators. There are many embedded constants. Additional constants can be defined by the user with the Const statement. You can use constants anywhere in your code in place of actual values.

data type

The characteristic of a variable that determines what kind of data it can hold. Data types include Byte, Boolean, Integer, Long, Single, Double, Date, String, Object, Variant (default), and specific types of embedded objects.

Date data type

A data type used to store dates and times as a real number. Date variables are stored as 64-bit (8-byte) numbers. The value to the left of the decimal represents a date, and the value to the right of the decimal represents a time.

date expression

Any expression that can be interpreted as a date, including date literals, numbers that look like dates, strings that look like dates, and dates returned from functions. A date expression is limited to numbers or strings, in any combination, that can represent a date from January 1, 100 û December 31, 9999.

Dates are stored as part of a real number. Values to the left of the decimal represent the date; values to the right of the decimal represent the time. Negative numbers represent dates prior to December 30, 1899.

declaration

Nonexecutable code that names a constant, variable, or procedure, and specifies its characteristics, such as data type. For external procedures (DLL procedures), declarations specify names, libraries, and arguments.

Double data type

A data type that holds double-precision floating-point numbers as 64-bit numbers in the range -1.79769313486232E308 to -4.94065645841247E-324 for negative values; 4.94065645841247E-324 to 1.79769313486232E308 for positive values.

dynamic-link library (DLL)

A library of routines loaded and linked into applications at run time. DLLs are created with other programming languages such as C, MASM, or FORTRAN. This term is mostly used on the Windows platform, on the Mac platform "Shared Library"is used instead.

Empty

A state of a variable. Indicates that no beginning value has been assigned to a variable. An Empty variable is represented as 0 in a numeric context, a zero-length string ("") in a fixed-length string context or as Null in a variable-length string context and in a object context.

error number

A whole number in the range 0 û 65,535 that corresponds to the error number returned by Err() function.

execution level

The level of definition and execution of a script, that corresponds to the object, owning the script. ConceptDraw supports the following execution levels: Application level, Document level, Page level, Shape level. Any execution level contains at least a built-in module with code in ConceptDraw Basic.

expression

A combination of keywords, operators, variables, and constants that yields a string, number, or object. An expression can be used to perform a calculation, manipulate characters, or test data.

file number

Number used in the Open statement to open a file.

Integer data type

A data type that holds integer variables stored as 2-byte whole numbers in the range -32,768 to 32,767.

InternalUnit

Internal units of measure in ConceptDraw, 1 InternalUnit = 0.1 mm.

keyword

A word or symbol recognized as part of the ConceptDraw Basic programming language; for example, a statement, function name, or operator.

line label

Used to identify a single line of code. A line label can be any combination of characters that starts with a letter and ends with a colon (:). Line labels are not case sensitive and must begin in the first column.

line number

Used to identify a single line of code. A line number can be any combination of digits that is unique within the module where it is used. Line numbers must begin in the first column.

locale

The set of information that corresponds to a given language and country. The code locale setting affects the language of terms such as keywords and defines locale-specific settings such as the decimal and list separators, date formats, and character sorting order.
The system locale setting affects the way locale-aware functionality behaves, for example, when you display numbers or convert strings to dates.

Long data type

A 4-byte integer ranging in value from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. The Long data type is also used to represent enumerated values.

module

A set of declarations and definitions of procedures, variables and also a set of ConceptDraw Basic instructions, united by the common global area of visibility of procedures and global variables.

module level

Describes code in the Declarations section of a module. Any code outside a procedure is referred to as module-level code.
Module level defines global visibility area of variables and procedures.

Null

A value, equal to zero. It's used to assign zero links to objects and strings of variable length. All non-initialized variables take the Null value together with the Empty state. In ConceptDraw Basic the Null value is also equivalent to the Nothing value.

numeric expression

Any expression that can be evaluated as a number. Elements of an expression can include any combination of keywords, variables, constants, and operators that result in a number.

numeric type

Any intrinsic numeric data type (Byte, Boolean, Integer, Long, Single, Double, or Date) or any Variant numeric subtype (Integer, Long, Single, Double, Date, Boolean, or Byte).

Object data type

A data type that represents any Object reference. Object variables are stored as 32-bit (4-byte) addresses that refer to objects.

object type

A type of embedded object exposed by an application, for example, Application, Document, Page and Shape.

object variable

A variable that contains a reference to an object.

parameter

Variable name by which an argument passed to a procedure is known within the procedure. This variable receives the argument passed into the procedure. Its scope ends when the procedure ends.

pixel

The smallest element that can be displayed on a screen or printer. Pixels are screen-dependent. Contrast twip.

point

A unit of measurement for type whereby 12 points equal 1 pica, and 6 picas equal 1 inch; thus, 1 point equals 1/72 inch. See also twip.

print zone

Print zones begin every 14 columns. The width of each column is an average of the width of all characters in the point size for the selected font.

procedure

A named sequence of statements executed as a unit. For example, Function and Sub are types of procedures.

procedure level

Describes statements located within a Function or Sub procedure. Declarations are usually listed first, followed by assignments and other executable code.
Note that module-level code resides outside a procedure block.
Procedure level defines the local visibility area of variables.

property

A named attribute of an object. Properties define object characteristics such as size, color, and location, or the state of an object, such as enabled or disabled.

run time

The time during which code is running. During run time, you can't edit the code.

run-time error

An error that occurs when code is running. A run-time error results when a statement attempts an invalid operation.

seed

An initial value used to generate pseudo-random numbers. For example, the Randomize statement creates a seed number used by the Rnd function to create unique pseudo-random number sequences.

Single data type

A data type that stores single-precision floating-point variables as 32-bit (4-byte) floating-point numbers, ranging in value from -3.402823E38 to -1.401298E-45 for negative values, and 1.401298E-45 to 3.402823E38 for positive values.

sort order

A sequencing principle used to order data, for example, alphabetic, numeric, ascending, descending, and so on.

statement

A syntactically complete unit that expresses one kind of action, declaration, or definition. A statement generally occupies a single line, although you can use a colon (:) to include more than one statement on a line.

String data type

A data type consisting of a sequence of contiguous characters that represent the characters themselves rather than their numeric values. A String can include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation. The String data type can store fixed-length strings ranging in length from 0 to approximately 63K characters and dynamic strings ranging in length from 0 to approximately 2 billion characters. In any case String stores text in the Unicode encoding, each symbol taking 2 bytes.

string expression

Any expression that evaluates to a sequence of contiguous characters. Elements of a string expression can include a function that returns a string, a string literal, a string constant, a string variable, a string Variant, or a function that returns a string Variant (VarType 8).

twip

A unit of measurement, implemented as 1/20 of a point, or 1/1440 of an inch. There are 567 twips to a centimeter. Twips are screen-independent measurements. See also point. Contrast pixel.

unit

A unit of measure in ConceptDraw. Units are screen-independent measurements. 1 millimeter contains 10 units.

variable

A named storage location that can contain data that can be modified during program execution. Each variable has a name that uniquely identifies it within its scope. A data type can be specified or not.
Variable names must begin with an alphabetic character, must be unique within the same scope, can't be longer than 32 characters, and can't contain an embedded period or type-declaration character.

Variant data type

A special data type that can contain numeric, string, or date data as well as the special values Empty and Null. The Variant data type has a numeric storage size of 16 bytes and can contain data up to the range of a Double, or a character storage size of 22 bytes (plus string length), and can store any character text. The VarType function defines how the data in a Variant is treated. All variables become Variant data types if not explicitly declared as some other data type.