Various type specification

Some Genero APIs use variant types for parameters or returns.

In Genero BDL, we distinguish different kind of types:

Primitive data types, such as INTEGER, VARCHAR(50).
Structured types, defined with RECORD (with or without associated methods).
Array types (DYNAMIC ARRAY OF ...).
Dictionary types (DICTIONARY OF ...).
Function reference types, defined with TYPE + FUNCTION.
Interface types, defined with TYPE + INTERFACE.

Some built-in function or methods of built-in classes or extension classes can take various sort of types as parameter, or return various types of values.

For example, the util.JSON.stringify() method can take a simple primitive data type value, a structured record, or an array as parameter, and convert that to its corresponding JSON string.

When a Genero API accepts such various type specification as parameter or return value, the syntax diagram will mention this as "any-type":

util.JSON.stringify(
     value any-type
   )
  RETURNS STRING