| bc-version |
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technologies |
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style |
| parentheses |
| function-call |
| method-call |
| aa0008 |
| codecop |
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Always write parentheses on procedure calls (CodeCop AA0008)
Description
AL allows a parameterless procedure to be called without parentheses — Customer.Init instead of Customer.Init() — and the result is syntactically identical at runtime. CodeCop AA0008 still flags the parenthesis-less form. The reason is twofold: written without parentheses, a procedure call is visually indistinguishable from a property read, which makes BC code harder to scan; and the same identifier may exist as both a property and a procedure on different objects, so the parentheses are the only local signal that this is a call. The rule applies to every parameterless invocation, including Init, Insert, Modify, Delete, DeleteAll, FindFirst, FindSet, Next, Get, CalcFields, and user-defined procedures.
Best Practice
Always write () on a procedure call, even when it takes no arguments: Customer.Init();, TempBuffer.DeleteAll();, if Customer.FindFirst() then …. The same applies inside expressions and as a condition.
See sample: function-call-parentheses-required.good.al.
Anti Pattern
Customer.Init;, TempBuffer.DeleteAll;, if Customer.FindFirst then …. Every one of those is an AA0008 violation. Reviewers should treat a parameterless procedure name appearing without parentheses as a defect, even though the compiler accepts it.
See sample: function-call-parentheses-required.bad.al.
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