SPLASH Programming Language

This chapter describes the Streaming Platform LAnguage SHell (SPLASH), which is a scripting language supported by Sybase ESP that brings extensibility to CCL. It is used to define custom functions, custom operators in the form of Flex Operators, and is used to declare global and local variables and data structures.

The syntax of SPLASH is a combination of the expression language and a C-like syntax for blocks of statements. Just as in C, there are variable declarations within blocks, and statements for making assignments to variables, conditionals and looping. Other datatypes, beyond scalar types, are also available within SPLASH, including types for records, collections of records, and iterators over those records. Comments can appear as blocks of text inside /*-*/ pairs, or as line comments with //.

• Variable and Type Declarations
  SPLASH variable declarations resemble those in C: the type precedes the variable names, and the declaration ends in a semicolon. The variable can be assigned an initial value as well.
• Custom Functions
  You can write your own functions in SPLASH. They can be declared in global blocks, for use by any stream or window, or within a local block to restrict usage to the local stream/window. A function can internally call other functions, or call themselves recursively.
• Using SPLASH in Flex Operators
  Procedures written in SPLASH are integrated into Projects using the CCL Flex operator.