InstallScript Language Reference

InstallShield makes designing your installation easy with InstallScript, a simple but powerful programming language. InstallScript is similar to the C language. It has a defined format and regulated syntax. It uses certain data types, each with specific properties. It also allows you to create custom functions.

InstallScript, however, does not provide the full range of programming functionality that C does. InstallScript was designed to do one thing—create installations. And it does so better than any programming language in the world. Regardless of your programming background, you can quickly learn to build an installation with InstallScript.

Some InstallScript functions, events, and variables are limited to specific installation project types.

InstallScript Language Reference
Section	Description
Integrated Compiler	Provides general information about the InstallScript integrated compiler.
Command-Line Compiler	Contains details about the InstallScript command-line compiler that can be invoked from the DOS prompt or from a DOS batch file.
Setup Scripts	Introduces you to the InstallScript language and the structure of a script.
Language Keywords	Presents background about language keywords, which are words InstallScript uses as commands in the script. Language keywords are interpreted by the InstallScript compiler to perform some action, or are considered part of a statement.
Predefined Constants	Identifies and describes each of the predefined constants reserved by InstallScript. These constants represent specific literal values that are passed to and returned by built-in functions.
Predefined Script Variables	Contains information about script variables that you can use with InstallScript.
Data Types and Predefined Structures	Contains content about the data types and predefined structures supported in InstallScript.
Preprocessor Directives	Discusses preprocessor directives, which are instructions to the InstallScript compiler that are executed as the script is compiled. Preprocessor directives can instruct the compiler to include other source files in the compilation, to define constants, to include or exclude statements based on compile-time conditions, and to display a user-defined error message.
Flow Control	Contains information on how to control the flow of execution within scripts.
Event Handlers	InstallScript project installation programs are driven by the InstallScript engine, which generates a series of events in a specific order.
Functions	Describes the different types of functions that you can use in your installation scripts; also includes details about—and examples of—each of the built-in functions available in InstallScript.
Operators	Contains information about supported operators in InstallScript.
Objects and Object Handlers	Contains information about the objects that InstallScript supports and how to separate error handling from the rest of your script code.

Some of the functions that were available in InstallShield Professional are deprecated in later versions of InstallShield. To view a list of the functions, see Unsupported Functions.

Because the InstallShield Help Library is designed to interact with InstallShield, it is recommended that you open the help from within InstallShield. Copying the help files to another folder or system causes many of its features to work incorrectly.