Routines
A routine is a callable block of user-written code that is an ObjectScript program. A routine performs commonly needed operations. Its name is determined by the name of the .MAC file that you choose for saving it. Depending on if a routine returns a value, you can invoke a routine with one or both of the following sets of syntax:
DO ^RoutineName
SET x = $$^RoutineName
A routine is defined within a namespace. You can use an extended routine reference to execute a user-defined routine defined in a namespace other than the current namespace:
DO ^|"USER"|RoutineName
Generally, routines serve as containers for subroutines, methods, and procedures.
The routine is identified by a label (also referred to as a tag) at the beginning of the block of code. This label is the name of the routine. This label is (usually) followed by parentheses which contain a list of parameters to be passed from the calling program to the routine.
When you save a routine to a file, the file name cannot include the underscore (_), hyphen (-), or semicolon (;) characters; names that include such characters are not valid.
