Hmmm. Anybody know what a W means in an Alpha format? other than 'Whacky', of course

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

If I recall correctly --

When TABLE produces an AnnnV column, holding to format alpha, the length is prepended in alpha form; the hold.mas describes that as AnnnW.


- - -


Somewhat analogous: when you hold an I5 to format alpha, you get
usage=I5, actual=A5,$

Here you get
usage=(the original) A1024V, actual=A1024W

Well its not Waz.

For instance:

DEFINE FILE CAR
  AVCOUNTRY/A50V=COUNTRY || '.' ;
END
TABLE FILE CAR
  PRINT SEATS AVCOUNTRY
  BY COUNTRY BY CAR BY MODEL
  ON TABLE HOLD AS HOLDA FORMAT ALPHA
END
! TYPE HOLDA.MAS

TABLE FILE CAR
  PRINT SEATS AVCOUNTRY
  BY COUNTRY BY CAR BY MODEL
  ON TABLE HOLD AS HOLDB FORMAT BINARY
END
! TYPE HOLDB.MAS

Output:

** HOLD FORMAT ALPHA (actual = "A" format) **

0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE= 18 LINES= 18
FILENAME=HOLDA , SUFFIX=FIX , $
SEGMENT=HOLDA, SEGTYPE=S3, $
FIELDNAME=COUNTRY, ALIAS=E01, USAGE=A10, ACTUAL=A10, $
FIELDNAME=CAR, ALIAS=E02, USAGE=A16, ACTUAL=A16, $
FIELDNAME=MODEL, ALIAS=E03, USAGE=A24, ACTUAL=A24, $
FIELDNAME=SEATS, ALIAS=E04, USAGE=I3, ACTUAL=A03, $ <- I field
FIELDNAME=AVCOUNTRY, ALIAS=E05, USAGE=A50V, ACTUAL=A50W, $ <- AnV field


** HOLD FORMAT BINARY (usage and actual are same, except actual padded to word boundary) **

0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE= 18 LINES= 18
FILENAME=HOLDB , SUFFIX=FIX , $ SEGMENT=HOLDB, SEGTYPE=S3, $
FIELDNAME=COUNTRY, ALIAS=E01, USAGE=A10, ACTUAL=A12, $
FIELDNAME=CAR, ALIAS=E02, USAGE=A16, ACTUAL=A16, $
FIELDNAME=MODEL, ALIAS=E03, USAGE=A24, ACTUAL=A24, $
FIELDNAME=SEATS, ALIAS=E04, USAGE=I3, ACTUAL=I04, $ <- I field
FIELDNAME=AVCOUNTRY, ALIAS=E05, USAGE=A50V, ACTUAL=A50V, $ <- AnV field


The content of HOLDA.FTM, the HOLD FORMAT ALPHA file, is:

 ENGLAND   JAGUAR          V12XKE AUTO               2000011ENGLAND.
 ENGLAND   JAGUAR          XJ12L AUTO                5000011ENGLAND.
. . .
 FRANCE    PEUGEOT         504 4 DOOR                5000011FRANCE.
 ITALY     ALFA ROMEO      2000 4 DOOR BERLINA       4000011ITALY.
. . .

As you see, all the row-instances of AVCOUNTRY have a prefix of "000011". The length-prefix reflects the statically computed length of the RHS expression

"COUNTRY || '.' "

-- 10 for COUNTRY + 1 for '.' = 11 -- regardless of the apparent length after applying hard catenation. So it's not fixed at 50 (the receiving field's capacity), but also does not shrink to reflect the trimmed length of COUNTRY. IBI has made it difficult to vary varchar fields' length attribute, so as to shrink-wrap the visible content.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: j.gross,

ah. yes it DOES mean Waz... it does from now on...its been permanently renamed...
Turns out...its WRAP
in oracle you can store an entire html doc , tags and all, in a single data field. so when you pull it down, it displays with line breaks, and separate lines, even in TextPad, even tho it is only one field.
very interesting.
so, we have to clean it up with POSIT and STRREP and SUBSTR ... focus magic!

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

An AnV/W does not reflect the variable length until applying an variable length character function, e.g.

DEFINE FILE CAR
 AVCOUNTRY/A50V=TRIMV('T',COUNTRY,10,' ',1,'A50V');
 END
 TABLE FILE CAR
 PRINT SEATS AVCOUNTRY
 BY COUNTRY BY CAR BY MODEL
 ON TABLE HOLD AS HOLDA FORMAT ALPHA
 END
 ! TYPE HOLDA.MAS
 ! TYPE HOLDA.FTM
 -RUN
 0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE=       18  LINES=     18
 FILENAME=HOLDA   , SUFFIX=FIX     , IOTYPE=STREAM, $
 SEGMENT=HOLDA, SEGTYPE=S3, $
 FIELDNAME=COUNTRY, ALIAS=E01, USAGE=A10, ACTUAL=A10, $
 FIELDNAME=CAR, ALIAS=E02, USAGE=A16, ACTUAL=A16, $
 FIELDNAME=MODEL, ALIAS=E03, USAGE=A24, ACTUAL=A24, $
 FIELDNAME=SEATS, ALIAS=E04, USAGE=I3, ACTUAL=A03, $
 FIELDNAME=AVCOUNTRY, ALIAS=E05, USAGE=A50V, ACTUAL=A50W, $
 ENGLAND   JAGUAR          V12XKE AUTO               2000007ENGLAND
 ENGLAND   JAGUAR          XJ12L AUTO                5000007ENGLAND
 ENGLAND   JENSEN          INTERCEPTOR III           4000007ENGLAND
 ENGLAND   TRIUMPH         TR7                       2000007ENGLAND
 FRANCE    PEUGEOT         504 4 DOOR                5000006FRANCE
 ITALY     ALFA ROMEO      2000 4 DOOR BERLINA       4000005ITALY
 ITALY     ALFA ROMEO      2000 GT VELOCE            2000005ITALY
 ITALY     ALFA ROMEO      2000 SPIDER VELOCE        2000005ITALY
 ITALY     MASERATI        DORA 2 DOOR               2000005ITALY
 JAPAN     DATSUN          B210 2 DOOR AUTO          4000005JAPAN
 JAPAN     TOYOTA          COROLLA 4 DOOR DIX AUTO   4000005JAPAN
 W GERMANY AUDI            100 LS 2 DOOR AUTO        5000009W GERMANY
 W GERMANY BMW             2002 2 DOOR               5000009W GERMANY
 W GERMANY BMW             2002 2 DOOR AUTO          4000009W GERMANY
 W GERMANY BMW             3.0 SI 4 DOOR             5000009W GERMANY
 W GERMANY BMW             3.0 SI 4 DOOR AUTO        5000009W GERMANY
 W GERMANY BMW             530I 4 DOOR               5000009W GERMANY
 W GERMANY BMW             530I 4 DOOR AUTO          5000009W GERMANY