OUTPUT section in REPORT

Specifies report destination and page format options.

Syntax

 OUTPUT 
[
  REPORT TO
  {
      SCREEN
    | PRINTER
    | [ FILE ] filename 
    | PIPE [ IN FORM MODE | IN LINE MODE ] program  
   } 
]
[
  [ LEFT MARGIN m-left ] 
  [ RIGHT MARGIN m-right ] 
  [ TOP MARGIN m-top ] 
  [ BOTTOM MARGIN m-bottom ] 
  [ PAGE LENGTH m-length ] 
  [ TOP OF PAGE c-top] 
]
  1. program defines the name of a program, shell script, command receiving the output.
  2. filename defines the file which receives the output of the report.
  3. m-left is the left margin in number of characters. The default is 5.
  4. m-right is the right margin in number of characters. The default is 132.
  5. m-top is the top margin in number of lines. The default is 3.
  6. m-bottom is the bottom margin in number of lines. The default is 3.
  7. m-length is the total number of lines on a report page. The default page length is 66 lines.
  8. c-top is a string that defines the page-eject character sequence.

Usage

The OUTPUT section can specify the destination and dimensions for output from the report and the page-eject sequence for the printer. If you omit the OUTPUT section, the report uses default values to format each page. This section is superseded by any corresponding START REPORT specifications.

The OUTPUT section can direct the output from the report to a printer, file, or pipe, and can initialize the page dimensions and margins of report output. If PRINTER is specified, the DBPRINT environment variable specifies which printer.

The START REPORT statement of the report driver can override all of these specifications by assigning another destination in its TO clause or by assigning other dimensions, margins, or another page-eject sequence in the WITH clause.

As the size specifications for the dimensions and margins of a page of report output that the OUTPUT section can specify must be literal integers, consider defining page dimensions in the START REPORT statement, where you can use variables to assign these values dynamically at runtime.

Tip: To produce reports with no page size limit, set margins to zero and use a page length of 1.