Best practices when macro substituting

When working with macro substitutions …

1) bring “closure” to them

  Get in the habit of always “closing” your macro substitution with a period (“.”); for example:

    &lcSQL.

  That way, when you employ macro substitution as part of an object hierarchy, VFP will properly parse the line; for example, if you have a form with a commandbutton whose .Name is ' cmdButton':

    The following code sets the .Caption of 'cmdButton' to 'Process':

      LOCAL lcCommandButton
      lcCommandButton = 'cmdButton'
      ThisForm.&lcCommandButton..Caption = 'Process' && Two (2) periods before .Caption

    whereas the following code triggers a “Property CMDBUTTONCAPTION is not found” error:

      LOCAL lcCommandButton
      lcCommandButton = 'cmdButton'
      ThisForm.&lcCommandButton.Caption = 'Process' && Only one (1) period before .Caption

2) don’t embed them

    lcControlName = 'cmdButton'

  Replace the cryptic, embedded macro substitution:

    ? 'oForm.&lcControlName.'

  with the following, easier-to-read (and, therefore, easier-to-maintain) code:

    ? 'oForm.' + m.lcControlName

  (The above should run faster, too, since it does not employ macro substitution.)