SCL Fundamentals

SCL Statements

SCL provides all of the program control statements of the Base SAS language. However, many Base SAS language statements that relate to the creation and manipulation of SAS tables and external files are absent in SCL. In their place, SCL provides an extensive set of language elements for manipulating SAS tables and external files. These elements are described in Using SAS Tables and in Using External Files.

SCL also provides CLASS and INTERFACE statements, which enable you to design and build true object-oriented applications. CLASS statements enable you to define classes from which you can create new objects. The INTERFACE statement enables you to define how applications can communicate with these objects.

Executable and Declarative Statements

As in the Base SAS language, SCL statements are either executable or declarative.

executable statements: are compiled into intermediate code and result in some action when the SCL program is executed. (Examples of executable statements are the CURSOR, IF-THEN/ELSE, and assignment statements.)
declarative statements: provide information to the SCL compiler but do not result in executable code unless initial values are assigned to the declared variables. (Examples of declarative statements are the DECLARE, LENGTH, and ARRAY statements.)

You can place declarative statements anywhere in an SCL program, but they typically appear at the beginning of the program before the first labeled section.

CAUTION:: Do not place executable statements outside the program modules.
Executable statements outside a program module (labeled section, class definition file, method implementation file, and so on) are never executed. See The Structure of SCL Programs for more information about program modules.

The Assignment Statement

The assignment statement in SCL works like the assignment statement in Base SAS except:

You can specify an array name (without the subscript) in the left side of the assignment statement. See Using Assignment Statements and Returning Arrays from Methods in SCL Programs for more information.
You can use the assignment statement to initialize the values of an SCL list. See Initializing the Values in an SCL List for more information.

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