PRINT

Syntax

PRINT
 { 
    expression 
  | COLUMN left-offset
  | PAGENO
  | LINENO
  | num-spaces SPACES
  | [GROUP] COUNT(*) [ WHERE condition ]
  | [GROUP] PERCENT(*) [ WHERE condition]
  | [GROUP] AVG( variable ) [ WHERE condition]
  | [GROUP] SUM( variable ) [ WHERE condition]
  | [GROUP] MIN( variable ) [ WHERE condition]
  | [GROUP] MAX( variable ) [ WHERE condition]
  | char-expression WORDWRAP [ RIGHT MARGIN rm ]
  | FILE "file-name"
 } [,...]
  [ ; ]

1. expression is any legal language expression.
2. left-offset is described in COLUMN.
3. num-spaces is described in SPACES.
4. char-expression is a string expression or a TEXT variable.
5. filename is a string expression , or a quoted string, that specifies the name of a text file to include in the output from the report.

Usage

The PRINT instruction is used in a report routine to output a line of data.

The PRINT statement can include character data in the form of an ASCII file, a TEXT variable, or a comma-separated expression list of character expressions in the output of the report. (For TEXT variable or file name, you cannot specify additional output in the same PRINT statement.)

If a BYTE value is used in the PRINT statement, the output will show the "<byte value>" text for this element when the report output is regular text. If the report output is XML, the BYTE value is converted to Base64 before it is written to the output stream.

PRINT statement output begins at the current character position, sometimes called simply the current position. On each page of a report, the initial default character position is the first character position in the first line. This position can be offset horizontally and vertically by margin and header specifications and by executing any of the following statements:

• The SKIP statement moves it down to the left margin of a new line.
• The NEED statement can conditionally move it to a new page.
• The PRINT statement moves it horizontally (and sometimes down).

Unless you use the keyword CLIPPED or USING, values are displayed with widths (including any sign) that depend on their declared data types.

PRINT fname, lname 
PRINT city, ", ", state, " ", zip-code

PRINT fname;
PRINT lname 
PRINT city, ", ", state, " ", zip-code

The expression list of a PRINT statement returns one or more values that can be displayed as printable characters. The expression list can contain report variables , built-in functions and operators. Some of these can appear only in a REPORT program block such as PAGENO, LINENO, PERCENT.

If the expression list applies the USING operator to format a DATE or MONEY value, the format string of the USING operator takes precedence over the DBDATE , DBMONEY , and DBFORMAT environment variables.

The PRINT FILE statement reads the contents of the specified filename into the report, beginning at the current character position. This statement permits you to insert a multiple-line character string into the output of a report. If filename stores the value of a TEXT variable, the PRINT FILE file-name statement has the same effect as specifying PRINT text-variable. (But only PRINT variable can include the WORDWRAP operator)

Aggregate report functions summarize data from several records in a report. The syntax and effects of aggregates in a report resemble those of SQL aggregate functions but are not identical.

The expression (in parentheses) that SUM(), AVG(), MIN(), or MAX() takes as an argument is typically of a number or INTERVAL data type; ARRAY, BYTE, RECORD, and TEXT are not valid. The SUM(), AVG(), MIN() , and MAX() aggregates ignore input records for which their arguments have null values, but each returns NULL if every record has a null value for the argument.

The GROUP keyword is an optional keyword that causes the aggregate function to include data only for a group of records that have the same value for a variable that you specify in an AFTER GROUP OF control block. An aggregate function can only include the GROUP keyword within an AFTER GROUP OF control block.

The optional WHERE clause allows you to select among records passed to the report, so that only records for which the boolean expression is TRUE are included.