pTAL Conversion Guide
Structures
pTAL Conversion Guide—527302-002
11-14
Template Structure Syntax
field-alignment
FIELDALIGN
specifies how you want the compiler to align the base of the structure and 
fields in the structure. The offsets of fields in a structure are aligned relative to 
the base of the structure.
If a definition substructure does not specify a FIELDALIGN clause, the 
contained substructure’s field alignment is the field alignment of its 
encompassing structure or substructure.
If you do not specify a FIELDALIGN clause on a structure declaration, pTAL 
uses the current value of the FIELDALIGN compiler directive. The default value 
of the FIELDALIGN directive is AUTO.
If you specify a FIELDALIGN (NODEFAULT) compiler directive, you must 
specify a FIELDALIGN clause on every definition structure and template 
structure.
SHARED2
specifies that the base of the structure and each field in the structure, except 
STRING fields, must begin at an even-byte address.
SHARED8
specifies that the offset of each field in the structure from the base of the 
structure must begin at an address that is an integral multiple of the width of 
the field. 
AUTO
specifies that the structure and the fields of the structure be aligned according 
to the optimal alignment for the architecture on which the program will run. 
(This AUTO attribute is not necessarily the same as the AUTO attribute in the 
native mode HP C compiler.)
FIELDALIGN
( SHARED2
SHARED8
AUTO
PLATFORM
)
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