3.1 Attributes and Directives

Directives are non-executable statements. A directive influences the semantics of the module it is located in, or of the member it refers to.

In the AST, the base node type for directives is DirectiveNode, which derives directly from SyntaxNode (RD-VBAL §3.0.2 Node Types).

Option Statements

Directives include the Option statements:

Directive	Description
Option Explicit	Implicit declarations become compile-time errors.
Option Base	Determines the base (0 or 1) of implicitly-sized arrays.
Option Compare	Determines the comparison mode for string comparisons: Text or Binary. The comparison mode may instead be a host-defined token, which dynamically configures the comparison mode.
Option Private Module	Determines the accessibility of a module.

The semantics of the Option statements are described in RD-VBAL §5.2.1 Option Directives.

Def<Type> Statements

Directives include the Def<Type> implicit definition statements:

Directive	Configures implicit definitions for
DefBool	VBBooleanType
DefByte	VBByteType
DefInt	VBIntegerType
DefLng	VBLongType
DefLngLng	VBLongLongType, in 64-bit environments
DefLngPtr	VBLongPtrType_x86 in a 32-bit environment; VBLongPtrType_x64 in a 64-bit environment
DefCur	VBCurrencyType
DefSng	VBSingleType
DefDbl	VBDoubleType
DefDate	VBDateType
DefStr	VBStringType
DefObj	VBObjectType
DefVar	VBVariantType

The semantics of the Def<Type> statements are described in RD-VBAL §5.2.2 Implicit Definition Directives.

Other Directives

Directives also include the Implements and Attribute statements:

Directive	Description	Described in
Implements	Specifies that the (class) module implements an interface class.	RD-VBAL §5.2.4 Class Module Declarations
Attribute	Specifies flags and modifiers that alter the semantics of a module or member.	RD-VBAL §3.1.1 Attributes

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⏮️ RD-VBAL §3.0.3 Binding Contexts | ⏭️ RD-VBAL §3.1.1 Attributes