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What does the dot (period) mean before an object name?

I am converting a Foxpro 7 app and there is a statement I see in about 200 places in the code which says:

LOCAL LcAlias as string

LcAlias = .LcAlias && This is the line in question

SELECT(LcAlias)

I don't know what .LcAlias represents, what the dot (period) indicates or how it's populated. I've done full searches of the all the readable objects in the project directory but I just can't determine how .LcAlias is being filled with data. The only thing I could find on the net is a reference to a previous WITH block but the code above appears at the very top of the code page and it is not contained within a WITH block.

If anyone has a clue for this perpetual Foxpro n00b I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

Solution

  • Almost certainly somewhere before this code, there's a line like this:

    WITH SomethingOrOther

    and somewhere below it is:

    ENDWITH

    That means that .lcAlias here is SomethingOrOther.lcAlias.