Help File Issue

[Gene]

Language Reference - Comments

Although only one statement per line is allowed, a long statement can span multiple lines if an underscore " _" preceeded by a blank is placed at the end of a "broken" line. String definition cannot be splitted in several lines, concatenation need to be used.

The text above could be more appropriately restated as:

Language Reference - Comments

Although only one statement per line is allowed, a long statement can span multiple lines if an underscore " _" preceeded by a blank space is placed at the end of a "broken" line. String definition cannot be split into several lines, concatenation must be used.

[PartyPooper]

I take it that 'string definition' is referring to variables and not the actual 'text' like in the following examples:

GUICtrlCreateLabel("This will work",25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT) 


$var = "This will work"
GUICtrlCreateLabel($var,25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT) 


GUICtrlCreateLabel("This " & _
                   "will work",25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT) 


$var ="This" & _ 
      "will work"
GUICtrlCreateLabel($var,25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT) 


$var ="This" _ 
      "won't work"
GUICtrlCreateLabel($var,25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT)

Edit: removed the concat symbol from last example

Edited November 27, 2005 by PartyPooper

[LxP]

Nope, 'string definition' refers to any sequence of characters within single or double quotes.

; This will work
Local $Var = 'This is a ' _
    & 'string'
; This will not work
Local $Var = 'This is a _
    string'

I would suggest a comment along the lines of:

One string cannot be split across lines. The starting quote of a string must be on the same line as the ending quote. Remember however that one string can always be split into two via use of the & operator:

'This is a string' is equivalent to 'This is ' & 'a string'

(The above example could be pasted here.)

[LxP]

Perhaps this is better:

Each line of a script may contain no more than one statement. Long statements can be spanned across multiple lines by ending each unfinished line with a space and an underscore like so:

$sTmpFile = FileOpenDialog('Select File', _
    '::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}', _
    'Executables & DLLs (*.EXE, *.DLL, *.OCX, *.ICL)')

Function names, variable names and values should be considered atomic, i.e. you can not break a line in the middle of one. To span a long string across multiple lines you must split the string into more than one piece using the & operator, which you can then concatenate across lines:

MsgBox(0x40, 'Information', 'This was one unusually long string, ' _
    & 'however it made my code look weird due to its length. This ' _
    & 'cause me to split it into a few pieces and concatenate those ' _
    & 'pieces together over a couple lines.')

[PartyPooper]

Well, I kinda get what you mean, however, my understanding is that while a string definition may be concatenated, I believe a variable definition can't (as in my examples earlier):

GUICtrlCreateLabel("This " & _
                   "will work",25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT) 


$var ="This" & _ 
      "won't work"
GUICtrlCreateLabel($var,25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT)

While the first example worked, the second example failed on my computer.

I guess it doesn't matter either way, but I tend to do the following:

MsgBox(0x40, 'Information', 'This was one unusually long string, ' & _
      'however it made my code look weird due to its length. This ' & _
      'cause me to split it into a few pieces and concatenate those ' & _
      'pieces together over a couple lines.')

In hindsight Gene, it may be better written as:

A string definition can be split into several lines, however, concatenation using the '&' is mandatory in this case.

Edit: both of my examples above work, however, the one below doesn't (which is correct):

$var ="This" _ 
      "won't work"
GUICtrlCreateLabel($var,25, 20, 340, 420, $SS_LEFT)

Edited November 27, 2005 by PartyPooper

[LxP]

Hmm... both examples work for me using the latest beta.

[PartyPooper]

That's scary. I tested them with the latest beta plugging values into some pre-written stuff. I'll code from scratch and confirm whether or not I had a brainfart ;-)

[PartyPooper]

Works. I musta done something stupid again. :-(

[Gene]

Works. I musta done something stupid again. :-(

H'mmmn, this is an interesting discussion on the defintion of the word "string" as it relates to AutoIt.

However, I was just hoping to get the noted Help file entry changed to reflect a more standard usage of the English language as contaminated by us Americans, oops, maybe I should have said "Citizens of the United States of America"

Language Reference - Comments

Although only one statement per line is allowed, a long statement can span multiple lines if an underscore " _" preceeded by a blank is placed at the end of a "broken" line. String definition cannot be splitted in several lines, concatenation need to be used.

The text above could be more appropriately restated as:

Language Reference - Comments

Although only one statement per line is allowed, a long statement can span multiple lines if an underscore " _" preceeded by a blank space is placed at the end of a "broken" line. String definition cannot be split into several lines, concatenation must be used.