Draft:AL (programming language)

• Comment: Three of the four sources are definitely primary and the last is close. We need in depth coverage in independent secondary sources. Stuartyeates (talk) 08:28, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

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AL (programming language)

AL is the programming language for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, which marks the inclusion of the former Microsoft Dynamics Navision as ERP software into the Microsoft 365 environment. With this change AL replaces the C/AL programming language as programming language for the newer versions of the software.

Differences to C/AL

AL is being written in visual studio code instead of C/SIDE (Client/Server Integrated Development Environement), which is also what the C in C/AL stands for. The launch conditions to apply changes to the software are set in .json files.

Other differences include:

• Procedure overload
• Page extension objects to add to objects outside editing permission
• Protected variables have been added

Examples

Hello World

This is the classic Hello World example. Like C/AL the AL language despite being written in Visual Studio Code does not use the console output, therefor this example uses the dialog box.

MESSAGE('hello, world!');

Functions and filtering records

Variables are defined in the code in front of the function as local or at the bottom of an object as global variables.

local procedure getCustomer(value : Integer) : Text
var
    customer record: customer
begin 
    customer.SETFILTER("ID",value);
    IF customer.FINDFIRST then
        exit(format(customer.name));
end;

Looping and data manipulation

Going over reasonably large sets of data to edit them in code is achieved with only a few lines of code.

Item.RESET;
Item.SETFILTER("order date",'%1..%2',010123D,311223D);
IF Item.FINDSET THEN
  REPEAT
    IF Item."Weight In Kg" > 20 THEN BEGIN
      Item."shipment price" := Item."shipment price"  * 1.2;
      Item.MODIFY(TRUE);
    END;
  UNTIL Item.NEXT = 0;
Item.MODIFYALL();

See also

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central