HP 3000 Manuals

HP Data Entry and Forms Management System (VPLUS/V)

Chapter 5  REFORMATTING SPECIFICATIONS 

Information gathered during data collection is stored in one or more
"batch" files.  The data entered for each field in a form is stored
exactly as it was entered.  All blanks, punctuation, or special
characters are included in the data.  The only exception is that any
formatting specified on the Field Menu or any automatic formatting
resulting from data movement (refer to Section 4) is completed before the
data is written to the batch file.  Thus, if a value has been entered in
the middle of a field, the blanks on either side are stored as part of
the data; or if a number has been right justified and zero filled, it is
stored in the batch file in that form.

All data from all fields in a single form are concatenated together
without delimiters into a single record in the batch file.

If the configuration of the data in a batch file is not suitable for
input to an application program, the data can be reformatted with
REFORMAT. This program writes the data from the batch file to another
file, the "output" file, according to formatting specified through the
reformat design program, REFSPEC. (Refer to Figure 5-1.)

You may want to reformat data entered in the batch file in order to:

 *  Combine data from several forms into one record in the output file.

 *  Separate data from a single form into two or more output records.

 *  Generate several output files from the data entered through a single
    forms file.

 *  Add literals (such as sort codes or record separators) to each output
    record.

 *  Use only a selected portion of the data entered in any field.

 *  Write only selected fields from any form to an output record.

 *  Fill, justify, or strip characters from data entered in any field.

 *  Add a check digit to alphabetic or numeric data.

This section describes how to use the reformat design program REFSPEC. It
is an extension of forms design and is used by the forms designer in
conjunction with an application programmer to specify how data is to be
reformatted.  Use of REFORMAT is described at the end of this section.


          Figure 5-1.  Relation Among Files Used for Reformatting 

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation