Pro*Cobol syntax - meaning of identifiers enclosed in '@', e.g. Select col1, col2, @identifier@ col3
Hi,
I'm fairly new to Pro*Cobol (but not new to Oracle), and I've recently run across some code that includes identifiers enclosed in '@' symbols. I've never seen this syntax before, and I'm trying to understand what the code is doing. Searching google/metalink hasn't turned up much, so I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. The code looks something like this:
DECLARE CURSORNAME CURSOR FOR
SELECT @HINT_RULE@ COL1, COL2, @SUM_SOMETHING@ COL3, COL4, SUM(COL5)
FROM TABLE1, TABLE2
GROUP BY COL1, COL2, COL3, COL4
I'm guessing the '@HINT_RULE@' is some sort of optimization hint, but I've never seen the @...@ syntax before, and I can't find any reference to 'HINT_RULE' anywhere in the code, so I don't know what the hint is or how/where it is defined.