There is the EDIT function where you basically use a mask to retrieve the desired characters from a string, so you could EDIT (fieldname,'9999999999'); where the '9' indicates to include the character in that position. (A $ eliminates that character, any other character is inserted into the resulting string) Additional info is in the documentation.

However, if this is a Date-Time field, you would have to use the HDATE function to retrieve the date portion of the field. EDIT will not work for this. (Unless it is just an alpha representation of a data-time stamp.)

OK. So for my Employee Pay Status field I want to cut off the last 10 charators so I just show the first letter:

EDIT(ALL.WF_VP_EMPLOYEE.WF_VP_EMPLOYEE.PAYRULENAME,'9$$$$$$$$$$')

Now where in the report does it go?

Well, you're creating a new virtual field, so it would go in a DEFINE or COMPUTE statement. You do have some documentation available, I hope?

To truncate the field, either (a) print a defined field rather than the original, or (b) use "dynamic reformatting" to truncate it:

a:
Define file xxx
RULEINIT/A1=EDIT(PAYRULENAME,'9');
end
table file xxx
print RULEINIT
...

b:
table file xxx
print PAYRULENAME/A1
...

Download the USING FUNCTIONS manual, one of the basic set of 4, commit it to memory, ..
the SUBSTR function works on ORACLE and other RDBMS better than the EDIT function.
and is a cool combination of the LEFT, RIGHT and MID excel functions...

quote:

Originally posted by susannah:
Download the USING FUNCTIONS manual, one of the basic set of 4, commit it to memory, ..
the SUBSTR function works on ORACLE and other RDBMS better than the EDIT function.
and is a cool combination of the LEFT, RIGHT and MID excel functions...

I have this book. On page 8-44 its says:
HDATE(value, 'YYMD' [, outfield])

It says you only have to spec the outfield if using as maintain.

I want to use this right in the report so I am adding this to the report:

PREVSTART/YYMD = HDATE(WF_VP_EMPLOYEE.WF_VP_EMPLOYEE.PREVPAYPERIODSTART, 'YYMD')

But when I run the report I get: >HDATE< parsing error, so I am guessing it does not go directly in the source of the report.

If I put it in the same define file as the empstatus (which I have working, thanks everyone), I get a 252 computation error.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Greg,

Greg,

maybe some basic training would help a lot.
But this is what you have to do

DEFINE FILE WHATEVER
NEWDATE/YYMD=HDATE(PREVPAYPERIODSTART, 'YYMD');
SHORTNAME/A1=EDIT(PAYRULENAME,'9');
END
TABLE FILE WHATEVER
PRINT 
fields you need
NEWDATE
BY SHORTNAME
END

You need the HDATE to convert your date time field, but on your alpha field you can change the printed size in the report, you don't need the edit.

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT CAR/A1

BY COUNTRY 


ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT PDF
END
  

If you NEVER need the time part of the date-time field, the easiest way for every report and/or user is to modify the master file, so that the ACTUAL keyword for this field does not read HYYMDs but DATE, and the USAGE keyword reads YYMD in stead of HYYMDs. This will return only the date part and leaves out the time. You'll not have to use date conversion routines or something like that, just referencing the field gives you the date only.