The period (.) symbol ends all statements, including block header statements. The DO, FOR, and REPEAT statements can end with a period or a colon.

It is also serves as a separator between:

  • A filename and a filename extension (suffix) in most operating system platforms, for example, Letter.txt
  • The elements of a qualified database table or buffer field name, for example, Customer.CustNum or Sports2020.Customer or Sports2020.Customer.CustNum
  • The elements of an ABL package name or .NET namespace, for example, Progress.Lang , Progress.Windows , or System.Collections
  • An ABL package or .NET namespace and the name of a class or interface defined in that package or namespace, for example, Progress.Lang.Error , Progress.Windows.Form , or System.Collections.SortedList

See : Punctuation for rules to help you decide whether to use period, colon, or double colon syntax.

See also

: Punctuation, :: Punctuation, Type-name syntax