I have a report with two versions, excel and PDF. There are two columns in the report with long character lengths, description and comments, and I want to use substr on the PDF version to limit the character length of these two columns and no substr on the excel version.

I had set this up using two prints and a goto for excel, but am told I shouldn't do it this way and should use a variable instead.

This is the basic logic of my report
-SET &COMMENTS = IF &FORMAT EQ 'P' THEN COMMENTS_CUT ELSE COMMENTS;
-SET &DESCRIPY = IF &FORMAT EQ 'P' THEN DESCRIPTION_CUT ELSE DESCRIPTION;

In define:
DESCRIPTION_CUT/A50 = SUBSTR(50, DESCRIPTION, 1, 50, 50, 'A50');
COMMENTS_CUT/A50 = SUBSTR(50, COMMENTS, 1, 50, 50, 'A50');

Table file:
PRINT CONTAINER_NAME AS 'Container,Name'
&DESCRIPY AS 'Description'
ROOM_NUMBER AS 'Room #'
STATUS AS 'Status'
STATUS_EFFECTIVE_DATE2 AS 'Status,Effective Date'
&COMMENTS AS 'Comments'
-GOTO RESUME

But when I run I get (FOC295) A VALUE IS MISSING FOR: &DESCRIPY. What is wrong with my IF statement?

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

I don't know. This works:

-SET &ECHO=ALL;
-SET &FORMAT='P';
-SET &COMMENTS = IF &FORMAT EQ 'P' THEN COMMENTS_CUT ELSE COMMENTS; 
-SET &DESCRIPY = IF &FORMAT EQ 'P' THEN DESCRIPTION_CUT ELSE DESCRIPTION; 
-TYPE &COMMENTS &DESCRIPY
DEFINE FILE CAR
DESCRIPTION_CUT/A5 = SUBSTR(5, COUNTRY, 1, 5, 5, 'A5');
COMMENTS_CUT/A5 = SUBSTR(5, CAR, 1, 5, 5, 'A5'); 
END
TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT COUNTRY AS 'Container,Name'
&DESCRIPY AS 'Description'
&COMMENTS AS 'Comments'
END

What is &FORMAT set to when you get the error?

Both 'P' and 'E' (PDF & Excel respectively)

After your two -SET statements add a -TYPE for all the variables, including &FORMAT. Follow that with a -EXIT. Let me know what you get.

Odd, now it's working. Looks like there was an erroneous -type written at the end of my define statement that I missed.Thanks for the help, Ginny.

That's another reason. I often forget the END statement after all of the defines, or the semicolon. It'll get you everytime.