Guardian Procedure Calls Reference Manual (G06.25+)

Formatter Edit Descriptors

Guardian Procedure Calls Reference Manual—522629-013

F-23

Modifiers

Modifiers alter the normal effect of edit descriptors. Modifiers immediately precede the

edit descriptor to which they apply. If modifiers immediately precede the left

parenthesis of a group, the modifiers apply to each repeatable edit descriptor within the

group. They are enclosed in brackets, and if more than one is present, they are

separated by commas.

Field-Blanking Modifiers (BN, BZ)

There are two modifiers for blanking fields:

BN blank field if null.

BZ blank field if equal to zero.

Although most edit descriptors cause a minimum number of characters to be output, a

field-blanking modifier causes the entire field to be filled with spaces if the specified

condition is met. The null value is the value addressed by the

nullptr in the

variablelist entry for the current data element.

Fill-Character Modifier (FL)

When an alphanumeric data element contains fewer characters than the field width

specified by an Aw edit descriptor, when leading or trailing zero suppression is

performed, or when embedded text in an M edit descriptor is not output because its

neighboring digits are not output, a fill character is inserted in each appropriate

character position in the output field. The fill character is normally a space, but the fill-

character modifier can be used to specify any other character for this purpose. The fill-

character modifier has the form:

char

char any single character, enclosed in quotation marks or apostrophes.

The following are examples of fill-character replacement:

The “|” character is used to denote the boundaries of the output field.

Note. Modifiers are effective only on output. If they are supplied for input, they have no

effect.

Format Data Value Result

[FL'.']A10 'THEN' |THEN......|

[RJ,FL">"]A7 'HERE' |>>>HERE|

[FL"*"]M<$ZZ,ZZ9.99> 127.39 |$***127.39|