Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied—Noam Chomsky

In the preceding chapters, we introduced the basic building block objects of NAV tables, forms, and reports. In each of these we reviewed the triggers within various areas such as the overall object, controls, data items, the Request Form, and so on. The purpose of each trigger is to be a container in which C/AL code can reside. The triggers are "fired", i.e. invoked or executed, when certain pre-defined events occur.

In this chapter, we're going to begin learning more about the C/AL programming language. We'll start with the basics, but we won't spend a lot of time on those. Many things you already know from programming in other languages apply to C/AL. In addition, many of the basic definitions can be found in the Application Designer's Guide and in the online C/AL Reference Guide that is part of the NAV Help.

Our goal here is to make it faster for you to learn how to navigate and productively use the C/SIDE development environment as well as to be comfortable in C/AL. We'll focus on the tools and processes that you use most often. Hopefully, you will also learn concepts that you can apply in more complex tasks down the road.

As with most programming languages, you have considerable flexibility for defining your own model for your code structure. However, when you are inserting new code within existing code, there's a strong argument for utilizing the model that already exists in the original code. When you feel compelled to improve on the model of the existing code, do so in small increments.

Chapter 7: Intermediate C/AL Development C/AL Symbol Menu Internal Documentation Computation—Validation Utility Functions TESTFIELD FIELDERROR VALIDATE ROUND TODAY, TIME, and CURRENTDATETIME Function WORKDATE Function Data Conversion Functions FORMAT Function EVALUATE Function DATE Functions DATE2DMY Function DATE2DWY Function DMY2DATE and DWY2DATE Functions CALCDATE Function FlowField-SumIndex Functions  CALCFIELDS Function CALCSUMS Function Flow Control REPEAT–UNTIL Control Structure WHILE–DO Control Structure CASE–ELSE Statement WITH–DO Statement QUIT, BREAK, EXIT, SKIP, and SHOWOUTPUT Functions QUIT Function BREAK Function EXIT Function SKIP Function SHOWOUTPUT Function Input and Output Functions NEXT Function (with FIND) INSERT Function MODIFY Function Rec and xRec DELETE Function MODIFYALL Function DELETEALL Function Filtering SETRANGE Function SETFILTER Function COPYFILTER and COPYFILTERS Functions GETFILTER and GETFILTERS Functions MARK Function CLEARMARKS Function MARKEDONLY Function RESET Function InterObject Communication Via Data Via Function Parameters Via Object Calls Use the New Knowledge A Development Challenge for You Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 A Sample Approach to the Challenge Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Summary

Paperback 480 pages Released: October 2007 ISBN: 1904811749 ISBN 13: 978-1-904811-74-9

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