How You Can Change a Field's Format
The format constant allows you to change the display format of a simple field or a column of a table field. The syntax for changing the format of a simple field is
set_frs field form_name (format(field_name) = value)
The syntax for changing the format of a column of a table field is:
set_frs column form_name table_name
(format(columnname) = value)
The new format is subject to the following constraints:
• It must be compatible with the field's data type.
• The number of rows and columns cannot exceed the size of the original format.
• Any data in the field must be valid.
Shown below are examples of changing a field's format:
• To change a date field to display dates in a format of ddmmmyyy (for example, 14 Jan 1999):
exec frs set_frs field myform
(format(datefld)= 'd"03 Feb 1901"');
• To change a numeric field to display monetary values as $nnn,nnn,nnn.nn:
exec frs set_frs field myform
(format(salary)='"nnn,nnn,nnn.nn"');
• To change a floating point column to display three values after the decimal point:
exec frs set_frs column myform mytable
(format(floatcol)='f12.3');
See the Character-based Querying and Reporting Tools User Guide for a complete discussion of form field display formats.