SAS Component Language Dictionary

LOADCLASS

Loads a class and returns its identifier number

Category:

Object Oriented

Syntax
Details
Example
See Also

Syntax

class-id=LOADCLASS(class-name);

class-id

contains the identifier that has been assigned to the class. If the class is not loaded, class-id contains 0.

Type: Numeric

class-name

is the one- to four-level name of the CLASS catalog entry to load. If class-name is a one- or two-level name, then the current search path is used to find the CLASS entry. If the CLASS entry was previously loaded, then the same class identifier is returned. Otherwise, the CLASS entry is loaded from the catalog into the application class list, and the class identifier is returned in class-id.

Type: Character

Details

LOADCLASS loads a class definition from a CLASS catalog entry. The identifier number that LOADCLASS returns can be used to create an instance of the class with the INSTANCE function.

Example

Load SASUSER.CLASSES.TIMER.CLASS and use the INSTANCE function to create an instance of the TIMER class:

timerclass=loadclass('sasuser.classes.timer');
timer=instance(timerclass);