Guardian Procedure Calls Reference Manual

Optional Plus Descriptors (S, SP, SS)
Optional plus descriptors can be used to control whether optional plus characters appear in numeric
output fields. In the absence of explicit control, the formatter does not produce any optional plus
characters.
The forms of the optional plus descriptors are:
SSSPS
These descriptors have no effect upon input.
If the S descriptor is encountered in the format, the formatter does not produce a plus in any
subsequent position that normally contains an optional plus.
If the SP descriptor is encountered in the format, the formatter produces a plus in any subsequent
position that normally contains an optional plus.
The SS descriptor is the same as S (above).
An optional plus is any plus except those appearing in an exponent.
Blank Interpretation Descriptors (BN, BZ)
The blank interpretation descriptors have this form:
BZBN
These descriptors have no effect on output.
The BN and BZ descriptors can be used to specify the interpretation of blanks, other than leading
blanks, in numeric input fields. At the beginning of execution of the FORMATDATA procedure,
nonleading blank characters are ignored.
If a BZ descriptor is encountered in a format, all nonleading blank characters in succeeding numeric
input fields are treated as zeros.
If a BN descriptor is encountered in a format, all blank characters in succeeding numeric input
fields are ignored. The effect of ignoring blanks is to treat the input field as if all blanks had been
removed, the remaining portion of the field right-justified, and the blanks reinserted as leading
blanks. However, a field of all blanks has the value zero.
The BN and BZ descriptors affect the B, D, E, F, G, I O, and Z edit descriptors only.
Buffer Control Descriptors (/, :)
There are two edit descriptors used for buffer control:
/
indicates the end of data list item transfer on the current buffer and obtains the next buffer. The
current position is moved to 1 in preparation for processing the next buffer.
:
indicates termination of the formatting provided there are no remaining data elements.
• To clarify, the operation of the slash (/) is as follows for any positive integer n:
If n consecutive slashes appear at the end of a format, this causes n buffers to be skipped.◦
◦ If n consecutive slashes appear within the format, this causes n-1 buffers to be skipped.
• The colon (:) is used to conditionally terminate the formatting. If there are additional data list
items, the colon has no effect. The colon can be of use when data items are preceded by
labels, as in this example:
10(' NUMBER ',I1,:/)
1554 Formatter Edit Descriptors