Extended References

Introduction

An extended reference is a reference to an entity that is located in another namespace. The namespace name can be specified as a string literal enclosed in quotes, as a variable that resolves to a namespace name, as an implied namespace name, or as a null string ("") a placeholder that specifies the current namespace.

All extended references can specify the current namespace, either explicitly by name, or by specifying a null string placeholder.

Types

There are three types of extended references:

• An extended global reference references a global variable in another namespace. The following syntactic forms are supported:

  ^["namespace"]global
  ^|"namespace"|global
  

  

  For further details, see Extended Global References.

• An extended routine reference references a routine in another namespace.

  • The DO command, the $TEXT function, and user-defined functions support the following syntactic form:

    |"namespace"|routine
    

    

  • The JOB command supports the following syntactic forms: :

    routine|"namespace"|
    routine["namespace"]
    routine:"namespace"
    

    

  In all these cases, the reference is prefaced by a ^ (caret) character to indicate that the specified entity is a routine (rather than a label or an offset). This caret is not part of the routine name. For example, DO ^|"SAMPLES"|fibonacci invokes the routine named fibonacci, which is located in the SAMPLES namespace. The command WRITE $$fun^|"SAMPLES"|house invokes the user-defined function fun() in the routine house, located in the SAMPLES namespace.

• An extended SSVN reference references a structured system variable (SSVN) in another namespace. The following syntactic forms are supported:

  ^$["namespace"]ssvn
  ^$|"namespace"|ssvn
  

  

  For further details, refer to the ^$GLOBAL, ^$LOCK, and ^$ROUTINE structured system variables.

See Also

• Extended Global References

• DO

• $TEXT

• JOB

• ^$GLOBAL

• ^$LOCK

• ^$ROUTINE