scope of reference

1. The portion of the 4GL source code in which the compiler can recognize an identifier name. The scope of reference (often referred to simply as scope) refers to the program blocks in which an identifier can be referenced. Outside its scope, an identifier may not be defined or may even be defined differently. In 4GL, there are three levels of scope: local (a single program block), module (all program blocks in a single source module), and global (all program blocks within a program).

See also define, global variable, identifier, local variable, module variable, name space, program block, source module, variable.

2. The portion of the source code in which the INFORMIX-4GL Interactive Debugger can recognize a variable name. The scope determines those variables which can be accessed by debugger commands. The default scope for variables of the 4GL application is determined based on the inspected function. You can, however, use scope qualification expressions in debugging commands to access active variables that are not in the default scope.

See also active variable, debug, inspected function.