Just as there are benefits to standardizing the external names of "parts", similar benefits apply to the naming conventions associated with "Parameters" often defined by Commands in one section of a script and then referred to in others as Command or Function "Arguments". The recommended naming convention usually involves a prefix followed by a one or multi node qualifier. The prefixes below are recommendations, what will be important to those tasked with maintaining scripts will be the adoption and rigorous use of those conventions.
Note: "Nodes" should NOT be separated by periods (.) because that character is reserved for qualification of Datastores and Descriptions. Generally Precisely recommends using the underscore "_" character to separate nodes, however it can be very useful to construct a Variable, Alias or Proc name containing "nodes" that reference a source or target when AS Clause parameters.
DESCRIPTIONs
Relational
<table_name> | <source_file>-<source_table_name> | I_<table_name> | I_<source_file>-<source_table_name> Input (Source) Table Descriptions. Source description alias names are often used without the I_ prefix. Adopting a convention is what is important for source descriptions.
T_<table_name> | T_<source_file>-<target_table_name> Target Table Descriptions
S_<table_name> | S_<source_file>-<target_table_name> Subset View of a Target Table Description used only by Cursors.
K_<table_name> | K_<source_file>-<target_table_name> Key fields (ONLY Partial) of Target Table for Create Cursor USING parm
R_<table_name> |K_<source_file>.target_table_name> | K_<source_file>-<target_table_name> Result Set Key fields (Full or Partial) of Target Table for Cursor DESCRIBED BY parm
IMS
<segment_name> 8 character segment name as defined in DBD (usually the same name assigned to the COBOL copybook copylib member)
VSAM/Flat File
<record_name> 8 character record name, usually the same name assigned to the COBOL copybook copylib memberDATASTOREs
Each type of Datastore has unique characteristics that may influence how they are referenced in the AS clause.
CURSORs
C_<table_name> Include file containing the K_<table_name>, R_<table_name> and the Create RDBMS CURSOR as C_<table_name> WITH SELECT statement
VARIABLEs
V_<variable_name> "Global" variables that are defined in the Main Engine script and may be referenced in any called Procedure or Function.
L_<variable_name> "Local" variables that are defined and valid only within a Called Procedure or Function.
PROCedures
P_<logic_proc_name>
M_<mapping_proc_name>