Used to replace all the blanks between the field boundaries
and the first or last nonblank data character with a designated
character.
Discussion |
 |
The FILL statement can be used to format data entered into
or moved to any field. (For automatic formatting, refer to the SET command earlier in this section.) As is true of
all formatting statements, FILL has an immediate effect on the data in the memory
buffer; the formatted data is then available for display or copying
into the application. When the user enters data into a field for
which formatting is specified, the data is formatted as soon as ENTER or an appropriate function key is pressed. Thus, FORMSPEC
formatting is done before data is written to the data or batch file.
(In contrast, reformatting through REFORMAT, described in Section
5, is done after data is collected, edited, and written to the batch
file.)
If you want the field to remain blank, redefine the processing
specification using a statement such as:
IF NE $EMPTY THEN FILL LEADING "0".
Example |
|
Statement | Data Entered | After Formatting |
|---|
FILL TRAILING "*" | [D250DDD] | [D250***] |
JUSTIFY RIGHT | [D250DDD] | [0000250] |
FILL LEADING "O" | | |
Note that more than one formatting statement can be specified.
Since the statements are executed in order of appearance, the FILL statement in the second example above affects the
data justified by the preceding JUSTIFY statement.
