Syntax and semantics
Harbour as every xBase language is case insensitive and can optionally accept keywords written just by their first four characters.
Built-in data types
Harbour has six scalar types: Nil, String, Date, Logical, Numeric, Pointer, and four complex types: Array, Object, CodeBlock, and Hash. A scalar holds a single value, such as a string, numeric, or reference to any other type. Arrays are ordered lists of scalars or complex types, indexed by number, starting at 1. Hashes, or associative arrays, are unordered collections of any type values indexed by their associated key, which may be of any scalar or complex type.
Literal (static) representation of scalar types:
- Nil:
NIL - String:
"hello", 'hello', [hello] - Date:
0d20100405 - Logical:
.T., .F. - Numeric:
1, 1.1, −1, 0xFF
Complex Types may also be represent as literal values:
- Array:
{ "String", 1, { "Nested Array" }, .T., FunctionCall(), @FunctionPointer() } - CodeBlock:
{ |Arg1, ArgN| Arg1 := ArgN + OuterVar + FunctionCall() } - Hash:
{ "Name" => "John", 1 => "Numeric key", "Name2" => { "Nested" => "Hash" } }
Hashes may use any type including other Hashes as the Key for any element. Hashes and Arrays may contain any type as the Value of any member, including nesting arrays, and Hashes.
Codeblocks may have references to Variables of the Procedure/Function>method in which it was defined. Such Codeblocks may be returned as a value, or by means of an argument passed BY REFERENCE, in such case the Codeblock will "outlive" the routine in which it was defined, and any variables it references, will be a DETACHED variable.
Detached variables will maintain their value for as long as a Codeblock referencing them still exists. Such values will be shared with any other Codeblock which may have access to those same variables. If the Codeblock did not outlive its containing routine, and will be evaluated within the lifetime of the routine in which it is defined, changes to its Detached Variables(s) by means of its evaluation, will be reflected back at its parent routine.
Codeblocks can be evaluated any number of times, by means of the Eval( BlockExp ) function.
Variables
All types can be assigned to named variables. Named variable identifiers are 1 to 63 ASCII characters long, start with [A-Z|_] and further consist of the characters [A-Z|0–9|_] up to a maximum of 63 characters. Named variables are not case sensitive.
Variables have one of the following scopes:
- LOCAL: Visible only within the routine which declared it. Value is lost upon exit of the routine.
- STATIC: Visible only within the routine which declared it. Value is preserved for subsequent invocations of the routine. If a STATIC variable is declared before any Procedure/Function/Method is defined, it has a MODULE scope, and is visible within any routine defined within that same source file, it will maintain its life for the duration of the application lifetime.
- PRIVATE: Visible within the routine which declared it, and all routines called by that routine.
- PUBLIC: Visible by all routines in the same application.
LOCAL and STATIC are resolved at compile time, and thus are much faster than PRIVATE and PUBLIC variables which are dynamic entities accessed by means of a runtime Symbol table. For this same reason, LOCAL and STATIC variables are not exposed to the Macro compiler, and any macro code which attempts to reference them will generate a runtime error.
Due to the dynamic nature of PRIVATE and PUBLIC variables, they can be created and destroyed at runtime, can be accessed and modified by means of runtime macros, and can be accessed and modified by Codeblocks created on the fly.
Control structures
The basic control structures include all of the standard dBase, and Clipper control structures as well as additional ones inspired by the C or Java programming languages:
Loops
[DO] WHILE ConditionExp ... [LOOP] [EXIT] END[DO]
FOR Var := InitExp TO EndExp [STEP StepExp] ... [LOOP] [EXIT] NEXT
FOR EACH Var IN CollectionExp ... [Var:__enumIndex()] [LOOP] [EXIT] NEXT
- The ... is a sequence of one or more Harbour statements, and square brackets
[]denote optional syntax. - The Var:__enumIndex() may be optionally used to retrieve the current iteration index (1 based).
- The LOOP statement restarts the current iteration of the enclosing loop structure, and if the enclosing loop is a FOR or FOR EACH loop, it increases the iterator, moving to the next iteration of the loop.
- The EXIT statement immediately terminates execution of the enclosing loop structure.
- The NEXT statement closes the control structure and moves to the next iteration of loop structure.
In the FOR statement, the assignment expression is evaluated prior to the first loop iteration. The TO expression is evaluated and compared against the value of the control variable, prior to each iteration, and the loop is terminated if it evaluates to a numeric value greater than the numeric value of the control variable. The optional STEP expression is evaluated after each iteration, prior to deciding whether to perform the next iteration.
In FOR EACH, the Var variable will have the value (scalar, or complex) of the respective element in the collection value. The collection expression may be an Array (of any type or combinations of types), a Hash Table, or an Object type.
IF statements
IF CondExp ... [ELSEIF] CondExp ... [ELSE] ... END[IF]
... represents 0 or more statement(s).
The condition expression(s) has to evaluate to a LOGICAL value.
SWITCH statements
Harbour supports a SWITCH construct inspired by the C implementation of switch().
SWITCH SwitchExp CASE LiteralExp ... [EXIT] [CASE LiteralExp] ... [EXIT] [OTHERWISE] ... END[SWITCH]
- The LiteralExp must be a compiled time resolvable numeric expression, and may involve operators, as long as such operators involve compile time static value.
- The EXIT optional statement is the equivalent of the C statement break, and if present, execution of the SWITCH structure will end when the EXIT statement is reached, otherwise it will continue with the first statement below the next CASE statement (fall through).
BEGIN SEQUENCE statements
BEGIN SEQUENCE ... [BREAK] [Break( [Exp] )] RECOVER [USING Var] ... END[SEQUENCE]
or:
BEGIN SEQUENCE ... [BREAK] [Break()] END[SEQUENCE]
The BEGIN SEQUENCE structure allows for a well behaved abortion of any sequence, even when crossing nested procedures/functions. This means that a called procedure/function, may issue a BREAK statement, or a Break() expression, to force unfolding of any nested procedure/functions, all the way back to the first outer BEGIN SEQUENCE structure, either after its respective END statement, or a RECOVER clause if present. The Break statement may optionally pass any type of expression, which may be accepted by the RECOVER statement to allow further recovery handling.
Additionally the Harbour Error Object supports canDefault, canRetry and canSubstitute properties, which allows error handlers to perform some preparations, and then request a Retry Operation, a Resume, or return a Value to replace the expression triggering the error condition.
Alternatively TRY [CATCH] [FINALLY] statements are available on xhb library working like the SEQUENCE construct.
Procedures and functions
[STATIC] PROCEDURE SomeProcedureName [STATIC] PROCEDURE SomeProcedureName() [STATIC] PROCEDURE SomeProcedureName( Param1 [, ParamsN] )
INIT PROCEDURE SomeProcedureName EXIT PROCEDURE SomeProcedureName
[STATIC] FUNCTION SomeProcedureName [STATIC] FUNCTION SomeProcedureName() [STATIC] FUNCTION SomeProcedureName( Param1 [, ParamsN] )
Procedures and functions in Harbour can be specified with the keywords PROCEDURE, or FUNCTION. Naming rules are the same as those for Variables (up to 63 characters non-case sensitive). Both Procedures and Functions may be qualified by the scope qualifier STATIC to restrict their usage to the scope of the module where defined.
The INIT or EXIT optional qualifiers, will flag the procedure to be automatically invoked just before calling the application startup procedure, or just after quitting the application, respectively. Parameters passed to a procedure/function appear in the subroutine as local variables, and may accept any type, including references.
Changes to argument variables are not reflected in respective variables passed by the calling procedure/function/method unless explicitly passed BY REFERENCE using the @ prefix.
PROCEDURE has no return value, and if used in an Expression context will produce a NIL value.
FUNCTION may return any type by means of the RETURN statement, anywhere in the body of its definition.
An example procedure definition and a function call follows:
x := Cube( 2 )
FUNCTION Cube( n )
RETURN n ** 3
Sample code
The typical "hello world" program would be:
? "Hello, world!"
Or:
QOut( "Hello, world!" )
Or:
Alert( "Hello, world!" )
Or, enclosed in an explicit procedure:
PROCEDURE Main()
? "Hello, world!"
RETURN
OOP examples
Main procedure:
#include "hbclass.ch"
PROCEDURE Main()
LOCAL oPerson
CLS
oPerson := Person():New( "Dave" )
oPerson:Eyes := "Invalid"
oPerson:Eyes := "Blue"
Alert( oPerson:Describe() )
RETURN
Class definition:
CREATE CLASS Person
VAR Name INIT ""
METHOD New( cName )
METHOD Describe()
ACCESS Eyes INLINE ::pvtEyes
ASSIGN Eyes( x ) INLINE iif( HB_ISSTRING( x ) .AND. x $ "Blue,Brown,Green", ::pvtEyes := x, Alert( "Invalid value" ) )
PROTECTED:
VAR pvtEyes
ENDCLASS
// Sample of normal Method definition
METHOD New( cName ) CLASS Person
::Name := cName
RETURN Self
METHOD Describe() CLASS Person
LOCAL cDescription
IF Empty( ::Name )
cDescription := "I have no name yet."
ELSE
cDescription := "My name is: " + ::Name + ";"
ENDIF
IF ! Empty( ::Eyes )
cDescription += "my eyes' color is: " + ::Eyes
ENDIF
RETURN cDescription
