Use the STRING statement to join all or parts of several data
items or literals into one data item. One STRING statement can take the place of several MOVE statements.
The STRING statement transfers data into a receiving data item
in the order that you indicate. In the STRING statement you also specify:
- A delimiter for each set of sending fields that, if
encountered, causes those sending fields to stop being transferred
(DELIMITED BY phrase)
- (Optional) Action to be taken if the receiving field is filled
before all of the sending data has been processed (ON OVERFLOW phrase)
- (Optional) An integer data item that indicates the
leftmost character position within the receiving field into which
data should be transferred (WITH POINTER phrase)
The receiving data item must not be an edited item, or a
display or national floating-point item. If the receiving data item
has:
- USAGE DISPLAY, each identifier in the statement except the
POINTER identifier must have USAGE DISPLAY, and each literal in the statement must be
alphanumeric
- USAGE NATIONAL, each identifier in the statement except
the POINTER identifier must have USAGE NATIONAL, and each literal in the statement must be
national
- USAGE DISPLAY-1, each identifier in the statement except
the POINTER identifier must have USAGE DISPLAY-1, and each literal in the statement must be
DBCS
Only that portion of the receiving field into which data
is written by the STRING statement is changed.
Example: STRING statement