DISPLAY (DIS)

The DISPLAY command has two purposes:

• Field Selection: Specifies the fields of the record that are displayed.
• Data Format Specification: Specifies the display format for individual layout fields.

The command is available in the Browse and Edit functions in Formatted and Vertical Formatted modes and for specifying formatted selection criteria in the Selection Criteria function.

Field Selection Syntax

ON, OFF, ONLY

Controls the display of specified fields as follows:

ON

Displays fields specified by the field-list parameter along with the fields that are already displayed.

OFF

Prohibits display of fields specified by the field-list parameter.

ONLY

Displays only the specified fields.

When formatted or vertical formatted modes are invoked, File-AID displays all fields defined in the record layout. To eliminate fields from the display, enter either DISPLAY OFF or DISPLAY ONLY.

field-list

Specifies any combination of field numbers and/or field number ranges. Field numbers are separated by either blanks or commas.

Field number ranges are specified by two field numbers separated by a dash (-), and represent the two range bounds and all intervening fields. The second field number must be equal to or higher than the first; otherwise, File-AID displays the error message: INVALID RANGE and ignores the command. If the two endpoints are equal (for example, 4-4), File-AID treats the range as a single field number.

Up to nine field numbers and/or field number ranges can be specified. Duplicate entries are ignored. Field number ranges and individual field numbers may be listed in any order.

The ON, OFF, or ONLY parameter can be placed before, after, or at any point in the field list. The field-list parameter is mutually exclusive with the ALL parameter.

ALL

Selects every field in the record. Enter DISPLAY ALL to display all fields. Enter DISPLAY OFF ALL to eliminate all fields from the display. The ALL parameter is mutually exclusive with the field-list parameter.

Field Selection Syntax Guidelines

Record fields are numbered sequentially from the beginning of the record. Use the SHOW NUMBER command to display field numbers of each data name. See SHOW-S for more information.

In Formatted mode, a set of display fields defined with the DISPLAY command is associated with the defined record layout and reused each time a record is mapped to that layout. You can define a separate set of fields to be displayed for each record layout if a record layout contains multiple layout definitions and/or an XREF is in use.

Display field definitions are retained throughout a session as the display modes are switched. Display definitions are discarded when a session is ended.

The DISPLAY command does not override the effects of any display values. For example, if the FILLER display value is set to OFF, filler fields are not displayed even if listed in a DISPLAY ON command. If FILLER is set ON, filler fields are displayed unless they are excluded from the display using the DISPLAY OFF or DISPLAY ONLY command.

Use the EXCLUDE primary command to specify records (instead of fields) to be ignored while scrolling through the data set.

The RESET, HIDE, or HOLD primary command displays fields that were hidden by the DISPLAY OFF or DISPLAY ONLY commands.

Example 1

The following command eliminates from the display all fields except fields 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9:

Example 2

The following command adds fields 5, 10, and 11 to the set specified above:

The ON option is assumed since neither OFF nor ONLY are specified. Since fields 3 and 4 are already included in the display set, specification of the range 3-5 results only in the addition of field 5.

Example 3

The following command eliminates fields 6, 9, 10, and 11 from the set of displayed fields:

Note that specification of an upper range limit higher than the total number of fields in the record affects all fields from the lower range bound to the end of the record.

Example 4

The following command produces the message: INVALID RANGE, and does not affect the set of display fields:

Example 5

The following command produces the message: TOO MANY OPERANDS:

Example 6

The following three commands are equivalent and restore the default condition, which is for all record fields to be displayed:

Data Format Specification Syntax:

format

Specifies the format of the data to be displayed. Valid values, results, and any field size limitations are listed below. Abbreviations of the values are shown in parentheses.

BINARY or (BIN)

Causes File-AID to interpret the data field as a binary number and display the integer (base 10) value of the binary number. Limited to 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 bytes.

BIT

Displays the actual bit pattern.

CHAR or DISPLAY (AN, DISP)

Displays data as alphanumeric characters. Invalid characters are displayed in hexadecimal format.

DECIMAL (DEC)

Interprets data as packed decimal data. Limited to 1-16 bytes.

FLOAT

Interprets the data field as a decimal floating point number. Limited to 4, 8, or 16 bytes.

GRAPHIC

Displays data as DBCS characters. Invalid characters are displayed in hexadecimal format.

HEX (X)

Displays data in hexadecimal format.

NATIONAL or UT16

Interprets data as Unicode UTF-16 and converts it to EBCDIC via IBM conversion services with the terminal CCSID. When conversion fails, original data are displayed in hexadecimal format. Limited to even bytes.

For any format value other than BIT, data items must be aligned on a byte boundary. If the format value is incompatible with any of the listed fields, any incompatible fields retain their prior formats.

If none of the listed fields are compatible with the specified format, File-AID displays the message: ITEM NOT MODIFIABLE. If none of the listed fields are elementary data items, File-AID displays the message: NOT AN ELEMENTARY DATA ITEM. If the field-list value is omitted, File-AID displays the message: MISSING OPERAND. No error message is displayed if the specified format can be applied to at least one of the listed fields.

During the session, File-AID retains and automatically uses field display formats specified for a particular record layout whenever a record corresponding to the same record layout is displayed. If multiple record layouts are in use, File-AID maintains a separate set of field display formats for each record layout.

The format parameter is mutually exclusive with the RESET parameter.

RESET (RES)

Restores the display of each listed field to the format specified by the record layout. The RESET parameter is mutually exclusive with the format parameter.

field-list

Specifies any combination of field numbers and/or field number ranges. Field numbers are separated by either blanks or commas.

Field number ranges are specified by two field numbers separated by a dash (-), and represent the two range bounds and all intervening fields. The second field number must be equal to or higher than the first; otherwise, File-AID displays the error message: INVALID RANGE and ignores the command. If the two endpoints are equal (for example, 4-4), File-AID treats the range as a single field number.

Up to nine field numbers/field number ranges can be specified. Duplicate entries are ignored. Field number ranges and individual field numbers may be listed in any order.

ALL

Selects every field in the current layout. Enter DISPLAY format ALL to set the format of all fields to the specified format.

Data Format Specification Syntax Guidelines

Either one of the listed formats or the RESET value must be specified. Only elementary data items are affected by use of this syntax. This syntax alters the format of the specified data fields on the display. Internal representation is not affected. This syntax allows the display and modification of types of data other than that specified in the current layout.

Example 1

The following command causes the data contained in fields numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, and 12 to be displayed in hexadecimal format (provided that they are elementary data items):

Example 2

The following command resets the format of all data fields to correspond to the currently selected record layout:

Example 3

The following commands result in the message: OPERANDS NOT VALID because mutually exclusive values have been specified: