Statements
A statement is a line of characters understood by APL. It may be composed of:
- a LABEL (which must be followed by a colon :), or a CONTROL STATEMENT (which is preceded by a colon), or both,
- an EXPRESSION (see Expressions),
- a SEPARATOR (consisting of the diamond character ⋄ which must separate adjacent expressions),
- a COMMENT (which must start with the character ⍝).
Each of the four parts is optional, but if present they must occur in the given order except that successive expressions must be separated by ⋄. Any characters occurring to the right of the first comment symbol (⍝) that is not within quotes is a comment.
Comments are not executed by APL. Expressions in a line separated by ⋄ are taken in left-to-right order as they occur in the line. For output display purposes, each separated expression is treated as a separate statement.
Examples
5×10 50 MULT: 5×10 50 MULT: 5×10 ⋄ 2×4 50 8 MULT: 5×10 ⋄ 2×4 ⍝ MULTIPLICATION 50 8