Defines the conversion of data in formatted data transfer
operations. Statement format:
FORMAT (q1 f1s1 f2s2 ... fnsn qn)
qn Is zero or more slash (/) record terminators.
fn Is a data edit (field) descriptor, a control edit
descriptor, a string edit descriptor, or a group of
such descriptors enclosed in parentheses.
sn Is a field separator (a comma or slash). A
comma can be omitted in the following cases:
o Between a P edit descriptor and an immediately
following F, E, D, or G edit descriptor.
o Before or after a slash (/) record terminator.
o Before or after a colon (:) edit descriptor.
The "data edit descriptor" has one of the following forms:
[r]c [r]cw [r]cw.m [r]cw.d[Ee]
r Is an optional repeat count. (If you omit r,
the repeat count is assumed to be 1.)
c Is a format code (I,O,Z,F,E,EN,ES,D,G,L, or A).
w Is the external field width in characters. Each
data item in the external medium is called an
external field.
m Is the minimum number of characters that must appear
in the field (including leading zeros).
d Is the number of characters to the right of the decimal point.
E Is an exponent field.
e Is the number of characters in the exponent.
The ranges for "r", "w", "m", "d", and "e" are as follows:
Term Range
---- __________
r 1 to 2147483647 (2**31-1)
w 1 to 2147483647
m 0 to 32767 (2**15-1)
d 0 to 32767
e 1 to 32767
The terms must all be unsigned integer constants or variable format
expressions. A variable format expression is an integer variable
or expression enclosed in angle brackets that takes the place of an
integer constant. The value of the variable or variables can
change during program execution.
You cannot use PARAMETER constants for "r", "w", "m", "d", or "e".
The "control edit descriptor" has one of the following forms:
c [n]c c[n]
c Is a format code (X,T,TL,TR,SP,SS,S,BN,BZ,P,
Q, $, or :).
n Is an optional number of characters or character
positions.
The term "n" must be an unsigned integer constant (for format code
P, it can be signed or unsigned) or a variable format expression.
A variable format expression is an integer variable or expression
enclosed in angle brackets that takes the place of an integer
constant. The value of the variable or variables can change during
program execution.
The value of "n" for P must be within the range -128 to 127. For
all other format codes, the value of "n" must be within the range 1
through 2147483647 (2**31-1); actual useful ranges may be
constrained by record sizes (RECL) and the file system.
The "string edit descriptor" has one of the following forms:
"string" 'string' nHc1...cn
string Is a character literal constant.
n Is the number of characters to be transferred.
c1...cn Is a string of printable ASCII characters.
Although no string edit descriptor can be preceded by a repeat
specification, a parenthesized group of string edit descriptors can
be preceded by a repeat specification.
For more information, see FORMAT_SPECIFIERS in this Help file.