Reserved words and symbols

Reserved words and symbols have a special meaning and can be used only in the manner described in this documentation. The following is the list of reserved words and symbols, and their intended use.

Reserved Word or Symbol
Intended Use
$
Shorthand representation of the object name in a component rule or a map rule.
:
Used to separate components.
:.:
Shorthand representation of a unique component or partition path.

For example, A:.:B refers to the unique path from the type A to the type B.

<>
Separates a partition from its partitioned type
,
Used to separate arguments of functions and maps
" "
Used to enclose literal text strings.
( )
Used for a component range, to enclose function or map arguments, and to block sub-expressions in a rule
@
Separates a comment from a component.
[ ]
Denotes an indexed member of a series.
{ }
Used to enclose a list of literals.
Names of Functions
Names of functions are reserved words. Names of functions can be used as type names, but cannot be used as map names.

For a complete list of functions, see the Functions and Expressions documentation.

Operators
Operators are reserved.

For a complete list of operators, see the Functions and Expressions documentation.

ANY
Represents one or more types in a component name.

ANY cannot be used in component rules or map rules.

COMPONENT
Refers to any component preceding the current one in the same component list. Used in the Type Designer to refer to preceding components of the same component list.

This reserved word can only follow the reserved word IN. For example:

COUNT (Record IN COMPONENT)

FALSE
Represents the logical false.
IN
Separates a component from an object that contains it. For example, LineItem IN File refers to all occurrences of the type LineItem in the type File.
LAST
Special index value that refers to the previous data object of a particular series.
NONE
Stands for the null value or non-existence of data content. Can be used in a component rule to test the presence of data. Can be used in a map rule to generate no occurrences of an output.
<space>
Separates type names. (This is an actual space.)

The names of individual types in component names are separated by spaces. Component names themselves are separated by colons. For example,

C:A B is the C component of the A subtype of B;

C:A B:X is the C component of the A B component of type X; and so forth.

<symbol>
Symbol abbreviations for entering non-printable characters. For example, <CR>.
TRUE
Represents the logical true.
WHERE
Can be used in the LOOKUP or EXTRACT function in place of the comma ( , ) between arguments.