TAL Reference Summary

Identifiers
TAL Reference Summary
096256 Tandem Computers Incorporated 7
Identifiers Identifiers are names you declare for objects such as variables, LITERALs, DEFINEs,
and procedures (including functions). Identifiers must conform to the following rules:
They can be up to 31 characters long.
They can begin with an alphabetic character, an underscore (_), or a circumflex
(^).
They can contain alphabetic characters, numeric characters, underscores, or
circumflexes.
They can contain lowercase and uppercase characters. The compiler treats them
all as uppercase.
They cannot be reserved keywords.
They can be nonreserved keywords.
To separate words in identifiers, use underscores rather than circumflexes.
International character-set standards allow the character printed for the circumflex to
vary with each country.
Do not end identifiers with an underscore. The trailing underscore is reserved for
identifiers supplied by the operating system.
The following identifiers are correct:
a2
TANDEM
_23456789012_00
name_with_exactly_31_characters
The following identifiers are incorrect:
2abc !Begins with number
ab%99 !% symbol not allowed
Variable !Reserved word
This_name_is_too_long_so_it_is_invalid !Too long
Though allowed as TAL identifiers, avoid identifiers such as:
Name^Using^Circumflexes
Name_Using_Trailing_Underscore_