Object Types

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Software Customisation Guide

Variables, Objects, Functions and Methods : Object Types

Object Types
Every PML2 variable has an object type which is set when the variable is created and remains fixed as long as
the variable exists.
Attempting to store a value of the wrong type in an existing variable will cause an error. The object type must exist
before the user can create a variable of that type.
PML 2 is supplied with built-in object types, system-defined object types, and the user can also define their own
user-defined object types.
The built-in object types include the following:

Object

Description

STRING

Holds any Unicode text, including newline and

characters such as Kanji. In macros written with PML1
where variables are created with the VAR command, all
variables are of type STRING, even when they are
storing numbers

REAL

Used for all numeric values including do loop counters.

There is no separate integer type.
These are often used to store physical quantities
(especially distances). The values stored are (nearly)
always in the current working units of the quantity (for
distances most often mm and inches). To distinguish
what units the value is stored in the units are also stored
with the value as another member of the REAL object. In
addition the type of quantity (its DIMENSION or
MEASURE) is also stored. For distances this is Length.
The full set of standard dimensions and units supported
by the system is described in the database reference
manual. These are in addition to compound units and
generic dimensions.

BOOLEAN

Used for the result of logical expressions and holds the

value TRUE or FALSE
Note: These are not the same as the STRING values
TRUE and FALSE.

ARRAY

Holds many values of any type Refer to Arrays for further

information.

There are also system-defined variable types, such as POSITION and ORIENTATION in AVEVA E3D.
User-defined variable types are explained in User-defined Object Types.
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6/13/2016