Conditional statements

Introduction#

Progress ABL supports two contitional statements: IF/THEN/ELSE and CASE.

IF … THEN … ELSE-statement

In the IF THEN ELSE statement the result can be either a single statement:

DEFINE VARIABLE i AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO.

IF i = 0 THEN
    MESSAGE "Zero".
ELSE 
    MESSAGE "Something else".

Or a block, for instance by adding a DO-block:

DEFINE VARIABLE i AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO.

IF i = 0 THEN DO:
    RUN procedure1.
    RUN procedure2.
END.
ELSE DO: 
    RUN procedure3.
    RUN procedure4.
END.

Several IF-statements can be nested with the ELSE IF-syntax:

DEFINE VARIABLE i AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO.

IF i = 0 THEN DO:
    RUN procedure1.
    RUN procedure2.
END.
ELSE IF i = 1 THEN DO:
    RUN procedure3.
    RUN procedure4.

END.
ELSE DO: 
    RUN procedure5.
    RUN procedure6.
END.

The ELSE-part is not mandatory:

DEFINE VARIABLE l AS LOGICAL     NO-UNDO.

l = TRUE.

IF l = TRUE THEN DO:
    MESSAGE "The l variable has the value TRUE" VIEW-AS ALERT-BOX.
END.

The IF/ELSE IF can compare several conditionals, with or without internal connections. This leaves you free to mess up your code in several ways:

DEFINE VARIABLE i AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE l AS LOGICAL     NO-UNDO.

IF i < 30 OR l = TRUE THEN DO:
    
END.
ELSE IF i > 30 AND l = FALSE OR TODAY = DATE("2017-08-20") THEN DO:

END.
ELSE DO:
    MESSAGE "I dont really know what happened here".
END.

CASE

The CASE-statement is a lot more strict than the IF/ELSE-conditional. It can only compare a single variable and only equality, not larget/smaller than etc.

DEFINE VARIABLE c AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.

CASE c:
    WHEN "A" THEN DO:
        RUN procedureA.
    END.
    WHEN "B" THEN DO:
        RUN procedureB.
    END.
    OTHERWISE DO:
        RUN procedureX.
    END.
END CASE.

Using an OR each WHEN can compare different values:

DEFINE VARIABLE c AS CHARACTER   NO-UNDO.

CASE c:
    WHEN "A" THEN DO:
        RUN procedureA.
    END.
    WHEN "B" OR WHEN "C" THEN DO:
        RUN procedureB-C.
    END.
    OTHERWISE DO:
        RUN procedureX.
    END.
END CASE.

Just like with the IF-statement each branch can either be a single statement or a block. Just like with the ELSE-statement, OTHERWISE is not mandatory.

DEFINE VARIABLE c AS CHARACTER   NO-UNDO.

CASE c:
    WHEN "A" THEN
        RUN procedureA.
    WHEN "B" OR WHEN "C" THEN
        RUN procedureB-C.
END CASE.

Unlike a c-style switch-clause there’s no need to escape the CASE-statement - only one branch will be executed. If several WHENs match only the first one will trigger. OTHERWISE must be last and will only trigger if none of the branches above match.

DEFINE VARIABLE c AS CHARACTER   NO-UNDO.

c = "A".

CASE c:
    WHEN "A" THEN
        MESSAGE "A" VIEW-AS ALERT-BOX. //Only "A" will be messaged
    WHEN "A" OR WHEN "C" THEN
        MESSAGE "A or C" VIEW-AS ALERT-BOX.
END CASE.

IF … THEN … ELSE-function

IF THEN ELSE can also be used like a function to return a single value. This is a lot like the ternary ?-operator of C.

DEFINE VARIABLE i AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE c AS CHARACTER   NO-UNDO.

/* Set c to "low" if i is less than 5 otherwise set it to "high"    
c = IF i < 5 THEN "low" ELSE "high".

Using parenthesis can ease readability for code like this.

DEFINE VARIABLE i AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE c AS CHARACTER   NO-UNDO.

c = (IF i < 5 THEN "low" ELSE "high").

The value of the IF-part and the value of the ELSE-part must be of the same datatype. It’s not possible to use ELSE IF in this case.

DEFINE VARIABLE dat                AS DATE        NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE beforeTheFifth     AS LOGICAL   NO-UNDO.

dat = TODAY.

beforeTheFifth = (IF DAY(dat) < 5 THEN TRUE ELSE FALSE).

Several comparisons can be done in the IF-statement:

DEFINE VARIABLE between5and10 AS LOGICAL     NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE i             AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO INIT 7.

between5and10 = (IF i >= 5 AND i <= 10 THEN TRUE ELSE FALSE).

MESSAGE between5and10 VIEW-AS ALERT-BOX.