The ABL Editor offers several features that help you format your ABL code for readability and consistency. These features include:
  • Code folding — Code folding temporarily hides sections of your code so that you can more easily scan the broader structure. Examples of code sections that you can fold are include files, internal procedures, functions, and methods.
  • Color coding — The ABL Editor displays different syntax elements in different colors to make them easy to recognize at a glance. You can use the default color scheme or go to the ABL Editor Preferences page to create your own.
  • Keyword casing — You can elect to have the ABL Editor display syntax keywords in all uppercase or all lowercase characters, or just as you type them. Your casing preference can be applied as you type, on demand, or when you save the file.
  • Code formatting — The ABL Editor can help you format the code, when you type or paste it. If you select the specific checkboxes in the code formatter preference tab, you can view the formatted code in the editor in the Preview pane and after manually applying it.
  • Keyword expansion — The ABL Editor can expand abbreviated keywords to their fully spelled equivalents (for example, changing DEF to DEFINE), either as you type or on demand.
  • Indentation and alignment — The ABL Editor can help you improve readability by automatically indenting lines as you type, when you paste text, or on demand. A separate option (tabular formatting) lets you automatically left-align like elements of statements within a code block, further improving readability.