iTS 1.0+)

Data Division

Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual—426750-001

5-59

Field-Characteristic Clauses

If this clause is omitted, the default clauses are WHEN ABSENT SKIP (absent fields are

skipped) and WHEN BLANK CLEAR (blank fields are cleared).

ABSENT

indicates that the clause acts on a screen field that the terminal operator skips over

without entering any data.

BLANK

indicates that the clause acts on a screen field in which a terminal operator enters

either blank or fill characters, or skips over a BLANK field for which the screen

field attribute, MDT (modified data tag), is set.

CLEAR

sets the Working-Storage to zero for numeric items and to spaces for alphabetic or

alphanumeric items.

SKIP

leaves the Working-Storage unaltered.

When a user presses the Tab key twice to bypass a field, the MDT does not get set. In

such situations, use the WHEN ABSENT CLEAR clause to force blanks in a field. The

WHEN ABSENT CLEAR clause, in conjunction with the CONVERT BLANKS clause,

allows the USER CONVERSION clause to be invoked.

WHEN FULL Clause

The WHEN FULL clause specifies the action to be taken when the last position of an

input screen field is filled and additional characters are keyed into the terminal.

TAB

causes the cursor to advance to the next input field.

LOCK

causes the terminal to lock the keyboard.

If this clause is omitted, the default is LOCK.

The WHEN FULL clause is only effective for terminals that support more than one

alternative action. Currently those terminals are the T16-6520, T16-6530, T16-6540,

and the IBM3270.

WHEN { ABSENT } { CLEAR }

{ BLANK } { SKIP }

[ WHEN ] FULL { TAB }

{ LOCK }