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Elements
As the previous chapter mentioned, you need to specify at least one element for user defined type.
Syntax
[STATIC] elementName[(numberOfDimensions)] AS elementType [= value]
Element definition has two mandatory parts:
1.elementName, following the same naming rules as any other variable
2.elementType, which can be any numeric, string or user defined type
Element can be also an array, in such a case you specify number of items in the brackets after the elementName:
TYPE Triangle
point(3) AS Point2D
END TYPE
DIM t AS Triangle
t.point(1).x = 0 : t.point(1).y = 0
t.point(2).x = 2 : t.point(2).y = 0
t.point(3).x = 1 : t.point(3).y = 1
Note: There is one exception, when array does not have to be dimensioned. See Data handling functions if needed.
Static elements
Element can be optionally marked as static. This means, that this field is shared between all the variables of given type.
TYPE Point2D
x AS SINGLE
y AS SINGLE
STATIC description AS STRING
END TYPE
DIM a AS Point2D
a.x = 1 : a.y = 2
a.description = "simple 2D point"
msgBox strformat$("[{1}, {2}] is {3}", a.x, a.y, a.description)
DIM b AS Point2D
b.x = 3 : b.y = 4
msgBox strformat$("[{1}, {2}] is {3}", b.x, b.y, b.description)
Once you run this example, you can see that values of x and y are unique to variables a and b, however, the description of a has been promoted to b due to shared, static nature of the element. This connection works even in the other direction - if you change the static element in b now, it will be immediately reflected in a.
Static elements are the only type of element to have the option of initialization.
TYPE Point2D
x AS SINGLE
y AS SINGLE
STATIC description AS STRING = "Simple 2D Point"
END TYPE
DIM p AS Point2D
msgBox p.description
The example will show "Simple 2D Point" message, because the p variable has the member description initialized in type / end type block.
