Cobol - Variable field-size?

Author

Variable field-size?

Hitch

2006-07-06, 6:55 pm

I've scoured every internet resource I know, but can't figure out if it
is possible to do pull this off. Here's the scenario:

I have a file that consists of 14 segments that are each 16,A long.
I have a separate file that I access that contains the user-configured
size for each segments. For instance, the first segment could be up to
16 long, but the user has said that it should only be 2 long. In other
programs that I have, I read the first file and then segment by
segment, pull in what the user has said the size should be. Using this
data, I can substring the fields and then string them all together for
a nice clean presentation. All is well.

Now I want to put them on a screen where a user can input into these
fields. I don't want to display the full 16,A field, though. I want
to limit the size of the screen field based on the user-configuration
pulled from this separate file. I've seen lots of posts regarding
varying-length records, but my file is always the same size. Its these
14 fields that will be different sizes at each different run-time. Any
help or pointing to other resources would be appreciated--or am I way
off-base on this ever working?

Howard Brazee

2006-07-06, 6:55 pm

On 6 Jul 2006 13:51:56 -0700, "Hitch" <bdrinkall@verizon.net> wrote:

>I've scoured every internet resource I know, but can't figure out if it
>is possible to do pull this off. Here's the scenario:
>
>I have a file that consists of 14 segments that are each 16,A long.
>I have a separate file that I access that contains the user-configured
>size for each segments. For instance, the first segment could be up to
>16 long, but the user has said that it should only be 2 long. In other
>programs that I have, I read the first file and then segment by
>segment, pull in what the user has said the size should be. Using this
>data, I can substring the fields and then string them all together for
>a nice clean presentation. All is well.
>
>Now I want to put them on a screen where a user can input into these
>fields. I don't want to display the full 16,A field, though. I want
>to limit the size of the screen field based on the user-configuration
>pulled from this separate file. I've seen lots of posts regarding
>varying-length records, but my file is always the same size. Its these
>14 fields that will be different sizes at each different run-time. Any
>help or pointing to other resources would be appreciated--or am I way
>off-base on this ever working?

I do this with delimited fields for spread sheets. One way I compact
them it to have a subroutine that compacts each field right before
writing the file (using reference modification). This works because
of the delimiters. If you don't want the delimiters, then put them
in the intermediate record and have the subroutine take them off while
copying to the output record.

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Richard

2006-07-06, 6:55 pm

Hitch wrote:

> Now I want to put them on a screen where a user can input into these
> fields. I don't want to display the full 16,A field, though. I want
> to limit the size of the screen field based on the user-configuration
> pulled from this separate file.

01 Field-16 PIC X(16).
01 Field-15 REDEFINES Field-16.
03 Field-15X PIC X(15).
03 FILLER PIC X(1).
01 Field-14 REDEFINES Field-16.
03 Field-14X PIC X(14).
03 FILLER PIC X(2).
...

EVALUATE Field-Size
WHEN 16
DISPLAY Field-16 AT xxyy
ACCEPT Field-16 AT xxyy
....

Or you could use, say, Flexus SP/2 where you can define a set of fields
at design time and then rejig at runtime to the required sizes.

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