Display of data and messages

The values contained in program variables can be displayed to the current form with the DISPLAY BY NAME or DISPLAY TO instruction.

Forms can be cleared with the CLEAR FORM or CLEAR field-list instructions. Complete record lists (in SCROLLGRID, TABLE or TREE containers) can be cleared with the CLEAR SCREEN ARRAY instruction.

Application messages and warnings can be displayed to the user with the MESSAGE and ERROR instructions.

The

DISPLAY BY
NAME

DISPLAY
TO

instructions are not interactive, and are usually not needed, if the program is always in the context of a dialog controlling the form fields:

When the dialog starts, the data of the program variables will be displayed in form fields if the WITHOUT DEFAULTS option is specified.
During the dialog execution, form fields will be automatically synchronized with the program variables when using the UNBUFFERED option. With this option, setting the program variable is sufficient to show the value to the user in the form fields.