Formats and prints a row of data in a report routine.
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
} [,...]
[ ; ]
- expression is any legal language expression.
- left-offset is described in
COLUMN
. - num-spaces is described in
SPACES
. - char-expression is a string expression or a
TEXT
variable. - file-name 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.
Data type | Default Print Width |
---|---|
BYTE |
N/A |
CHAR |
Length of character data type declaration. |
DATE |
DBDATE dependent, 10 if DBDATE = "MDY4/" |
DATETIME |
From 2 to 25, as implied in the data type declaration. |
DECIMAL |
(2 + p + s), where p is the precision and s is the scale from the data type declaration. |
FLOAT |
14 |
INTEGER |
11 |
INTERVAL |
From 3 to 25, as implied in the data type declaration. |
MONEY |
(2 + c + p + s), where c is the length of the currency defined by DBMONEY and p is the precision and s is the scale from the data type declaration. |
NCHAR |
Length of character data type declaration. |
NVARCHAR |
Length current value in the variable. |
SMALLFLOAT |
14 |
SMALLINT |
6 |
STRING |
Length current value in the variable. |
TEXT |
Length current value in the variable. |
VARCHAR |
Length current value in the variable. |
FILE
or WORDWRAP
option,
each PRINT
statement displays output on a single
line. For example, this fragment displays output on two lines:PRINT fname, lname
PRINT city, ", ", state, " ", zip-code
PRINT
statement with a semicolon. However, you suppress the
implicit LINEFEED character at the end of the line. The following example has the same effect as the
PRINT
statements in the previous
example: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 file-name
statement reads the contents
of the specified file 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
file-name 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.
Example
The following example is from the FORMAT
section
of a report definition that displays both quoted strings and values
from rows of the customer table:
FIRST PAGE HEADER
PRINT COLUMN 30, "CUSTOMER LIST"
SKIP 2 LINES
PRINT "Listings for the State of ", thisstate
SKIP 2 LINES
PRINT "NUMBER", COLUMN 12, "NAME", COLUMN 35, "LOCATION",
COLUMN 57, "ZIP", COLUMN 65, "PHONE"
SKIP 1 LINE
PAGE HEADER
PRINT "NUMBER", COLUMN 12, "NAME", COLUMN 35, "LOCATION",
COLUMN 57, "ZIP", COLUMN 65, "PHONE"
SKIP 1 LINE
ON EVERY ROW
PRINT customer_num USING "###&", COLUMN 12, fname CLIPPED,
1 SPACE, lname CLIPPED, COLUMN 35, city CLIPPED, ", ",
state, COLUMN 57, zip-code, COLUMN 65, phone