The following rules apply to edit words in output specifications:
- Position 44 (edit codes) must be blank.
- Positions 30 through 43 (field name) must contain the name of
a numeric field.
- An
edit word must be enclosed in apostrophes, unless it is a named constant.
Enter the leading apostrophe or begin a named constant name in position
53. The edit word itself must begin in position 54.
The following rules apply to edit words in general:
- The edit word can contain more digit positions (blanks plus the
initial zero or asterisk) than the field to be edited, but must not
contain less. If there are more digit positions in the edit word
than there are digits in the field to be edited, leading zeros are
added to the field before editing.
- If leading zeros from the source data are desired, the edit word
must contain one more position than the field to be edited, and a
zero must be placed in the high-order position of the edit word.
- In the body of the edit word only blanks and the zero-suppression
stop characters (zero and asterisk) are counted as digit positions.
The floating currency symbol is not counted as a digit position.
- When the floating currency symbol is used, the sum of the number
of blanks and the zero-suppression stop character (digit positions)
contained in the edit word must be equal to or greater than the number
of positions in the field to be edited.
- Any zeros or asterisks following the leftmost zero or asterisk
are treated as constants; they are not replaceable characters.
- When editing an unsigned integer field, DB and CR are allowed
and will always print as blanks.