external#

Purpose#

Lets the compiler know about symbols that are referenced above or in a separate file from their definitions.

Format#

external proc dog, cat
external keyword dog
external fn dog
external matrixx, y, z
external string mstr, cstr
external array a, b
external sparse matrix sma, smb
external struct structure_type sta, stb

Examples#

Let us suppose that you created a set of procedures defined in different files, which all set a global matrix _errcode to some scalar error code if errors were encountered. You could use the following code to call one of the procedures in the set and check whether it succeeded:

external matrix _errcode;

// Generate random data
x = rndn(10, 5);

// Call procedure
y = myproc1(x);

if _errcode;
   print "myproc1 failed";
   end;
endif;

Without the external statement, the compiler would assume that _errcode was a procedure and incorrectly compile this program. The file containing the myproc1 procedure must also contain an external statement that defines _errcode as a matrix, but this would not be encountered by the compiler until the if, else, elseif, endif statement containing the reference to _errcode in the main program file had already been incorrectly compiled.

Remarks#

See Procedures and Keywords.

You may have several procedures in different files that reference the same global variable. By placing an external statement at the top of each file, you can let the compiler know the type of the symbol. If the symbol is listed and strongly typed in an active library, no external statement is needed.

If a matrix, string, N-dimensional array, sparse matrix, or structure appears in an external statement, it needs to appear once in a declare statement. If no declaration is found, an Undefined symbol error message will result.