Properties
A property routine is a series of Encore RPG statements that manipulate a custom property on a program, class, or structure.
A property differs from a public variable or a field in the following respects:
- You implement a property with executable code (
BEGPROP), rather than with a single declaration statement. - Property procedures are executed when the property value is set or retrieved. This allows a class to perform custom actions when client code accesses the property.
- A property does not have any storage location associated with its declaration. Although its Property procedures often define local variables and constants, these are usually not available to the code accessing the property. Therefore, while you can include a variable or a field as a member of a structure or array, you cannot do this with a property.
- You can define a property as read-only, write-only, or read/write. The default is read/write.
Encore RPG provides the following Property procedures:
BEGGEToperations return the value of a property; they are called when the property is accessed in an expression.BEGSEToperations set a property to a value, including an object reference; they are called when a value is assigned to the property.
You usually define Property procedures in pairs, using the BEGGET and BEGSET op codes, but you can define either procedure alone if the property is read-only (BegGet) or write-only (BegSet ).