Values in "M"

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Describing data values and their interrelationships is at the heart of modeling. This section describes how data values are specified in Microsoft code name “M” modeling language. Values are specified as expressions, which are assigned to named fields or extents. Values can be simple or complex.

Values have an intrinsic data type, which can be simple, such as integer32 or boolean, or compound, such as a collection, list, or entity.

Values can define stored data by creating an extent.

Underlying all values is a complex tree structure known as an MGraph, which describes values as a network of nodes and edges, and provides a storage representation of the value, as well as methods for traversing the tree.

For more information about specific keywords, operators and preprocessor directives, see the Technical Reference ("M" Reference).

For more information, see our videos at MSDN.

In This Section

• Intrinsic Data Types
  Describes the types that values can assume.

• Creating Extents
  Shows how to define values that reside in storage.

• The Mgraph structure
  Describes in detail the tree structure underlying values.