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The same plain-backtick "See sample: \`x.good.al\`." form fixed on al-methods-limited-during-write-transactions (PR #161) turned up repo-wide on 15 more of this PR's articles - Knowledge-Retrieval.ps1 requires the markdown-link form to associate a sample with its article. All 16 fixed; the four local validators (frontmatter, knowledge-index, knowledge-retrieval, review-fixtures, skill-index) pass.
28 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
28 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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bc-version: [all]
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domain: style
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keywords: [casing, intrinsic-function, built-in-function, message, error, confirm, strsubstno, legacy, c-al, pascalcase]
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technologies: [al]
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countries: [w1]
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application-area: [all]
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---
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# Intrinsic AL function calls use modern casing, not legacy ALL-CAPS
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> Contributions welcome — open a PR to refine or extend this article.
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## Description
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AL is case-insensitive, so `MESSAGE(...)`, `ERROR(...)`, `CONFIRM(...)`, and `STRSUBSTNO(...)` compile and run identically to `Message(...)`, `Error(...)`, `Confirm(...)`, and `StrSubstNo(...)`. Modern AL — Microsoft's own current samples and current reference codebases — writes intrinsic/built-in function calls in the casing Microsoft assigns to the function's declared name, typically PascalCase. This is a codebase-convention claim, not a claim about what the VS Code formatter enforces: the formatter normalizes particular syntax but is not a mechanism for recasing every intrinsic function call, so do not cite formatter behavior as the reason to follow this convention. ALL-CAPS calls are a holdover from classic C/AL and signal code that has not been modernized, even though it compiles and runs correctly. Reserved keywords such as `if`, `begin`, and `for` are a separate, already-tooled concern; intrinsic function names are identifiers, not keywords, so that tooling does not catch ALL-CAPS intrinsic function calls.
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## Best Practice
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Call intrinsic functions in their modern, PascalCase form.
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See sample: [`intrinsic-al-functions-must-use-modern-casing.good.al`](intrinsic-al-functions-must-use-modern-casing.good.al).
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## Anti Pattern
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ALL-CAPS intrinsic function calls trip no compiler error, but they are a reliable signal that a code block was copied from old C/AL material or outdated training content rather than written against current AL conventions.
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See sample: [`intrinsic-al-functions-must-use-modern-casing.bad.al`](intrinsic-al-functions-must-use-modern-casing.bad.al).
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