Note: The content in this section applies to procedure-based applications. For information on using super classes in object-oriented applications, see Develop Object-Oriented ABL Applications.

Super procedures were introduced to the language in Version 9 as a way to provide standard libraries of application behavior that can be inherited by other procedures and, where necessary, overridden or specialized by individual application components. They give an object-oriented flavor to ABL programming that was not available before.

A super procedure is a separately compiled ABL procedure file. Its entry points can effectively be added to those of another procedure so that a RUN statement or function reference in the other procedure causes the ABL interpreter to search both procedures for an internal procedure or function to run. There is also a RUN SUPER statement that lets you implement multiple versions of a single entry point, each in its own procedure file, and have them all execute at run time to provide the application with complex behavior defined at a number of different levels.

In this section, you learn how to build super procedures and how to define application behavior in them that many other procedures can use in a consistent way.