INSTRUCTIONS section

The INSTRUCTIONS section is used to define screen arrays, non-default screen records, and global form properties.

Syntax

INSTRUCTIONS
{ screen-record-definition [;] }
[ DELIMITERS "AB" [;] ]
[ DEFAULT SAMPLE = "string" ]
[END]
  1. screen-record-definition is the definition of a screen record or screen array.
  2. A and B define the opening and closing field delimiters for character based terminals.

Usage

The INSTRUCTIONS section must appear in the sequence described in form file structure.

The INSTRUCTIONS section is optional in a form definition.

The END keyword is optional.

This section is mainly used to define screen records, to group fields using tables, tree views, scrollgrids, or traditional static field arrays.

Screen records (or screen arrays)

A screen record is a named group of form fields:
SCREEN RECORD sr(customer.*);

See Screen records / arrays for more details.

Field delimiters

Use the DELIMITER keyword to specify the characters to be displayed as field delimiters on the screen. This option is especially used for TUI mode applications:

DELIMITERS "[]";

Default sample

The DEFAULT SAMPLE directive defines the default sample text for all fields:
DEFAULT SAMPLE = "MMM"

See SAMPLE attribute for more details.

Example

SCHEMA stores 
LAYOUT
GRID
{
  ...
}
END
TABLES
 stock, items 
END
ATTRIBUTES
...
END
INSTRUCTIONS
  SCREEN RECORD s_items[10]
    ( stock.*,
      items.quantity,
      FORMONLY.total_price )
  DELIMITERS "[]"
END