The period (.) symbol ends all statements,
including block header statements. The DO, FOR, and REPEAT statements
can end with a period or a colon.
It is also serves as a
separator between:
- A filename and a filename extension
(suffix) in most operating system platforms, for example, Letter.txt
- The elements of a qualified database table or buffer field name,
for example, Customer.CustNum or Sports2000.Customer or Sports2000.Customer.CustNum
- The elements of an ABL package name or .NET namespace,
for example, Progress.Lang, Progress.Windows,
or System.Collections
- An ABL package or .NET namespace and the name of a class
or interface defined in that package or namespace, for example, Progress.Lang.Error, Progress.Windows.Form,
or System.Collections.SortedList
See : Punctuation for
rules to help you decide whether to use period, colon, or double
colon syntax.