Syntax conventions
The Cognos®
Transformer
Developer Guide uses the following syntax and naming conventions:
- MDL verbs and keywords display in
code
or bold form. Verbs and keywords are not case-sensitive, but otherwise must be typed as is. For example, if the syntax includesCatMake
, you can typeCatMake
,catmake
, orCATMAKE
. - Italicized words are placeholders for things you must
supply. If more than one placeholder can be supplied, the italicized
word is plural, such as
objCats
in the following example:StartList objCats EndList
- Italicized words starting with obj are placeholders to
identify an object. The identification must be an object name, object
identifier, or both. For example,
objCat
is a placeholder for a category and might appear in the MDL file as135 "Dishwashers"
, which identifies a category with object identifier135
and object nameDishwashers
. - Square brackets [ ] indicate optional items. If only one of two
or more optional items may be chosen, they are separated by a pipe
(|). For example,
[red | green]
means that you can specify red or green, or neither. The syntax,[red][green]
means that you can use either, neither, or both red and green. - Braces { } indicate a set of choices, separated by a pipe, from
which you must choose one. For example,
{red|green}
means that you must specify either red or green, but not both.
When the syntax is too long to fit on one line, it wraps at a space between characters.