White space

Description

Blanks, tabs, form feeds, and comments are forms of white space. The compiler treats white space as a delimiter and does not consider the number of white space characters.

Usage

White space in string literals

The number of white space characters is preserved when they are part of a string literal (enclosed in single or double quotation marks).

Dashes in identifiers

Unless you have prohibited the use of dashes in identifiers (see Identifier names), you must surround a dash used as a minus sign with spaces. Otherwise, PowerBuilder considers the dash as part of a variable name:

Order - Balance  // Subtracts Balance from Order
Order-Balance    // A variable named Order-Balance

Examples

Example 1

Here the spaces and the comment are white space, so the compiler ignores them:

A + B /*Adjustment factor */+C

Example 2

Here the spaces are within a string literal, so the compiler does not ignore them:

"The value of A + B is:"