Displaying Selected Attributes

Part of designing a report is explicitly specifying the data it will include. For example, the user may want to generate a report from the ORDERS file. The ORDERS dictionary defines twelve different attributes, but only four of them are pertinent to the report. In this case, the user would include the names of those four attributes in the query. This explicit list of attributes is called an output specification.

If such a specification is not included in a query, the system produces a default display. The section titled Using INFO/ACCESS Syntax describes this fully. See Default Processing of INFO/ACCESS Parameters.

The following report example displays items from the CUSTOMERS file. It includes the customers’ last names and first names. The report also includes item-IDs, which are the default output specification for a data file.

The report displays the data in columnar format, which is the default format for INFO/ACCESS reports unless the sum of the column widths exceeds the page width as defined by the TERM command. In this case, the report lists the data vertically, in noncolumnar format.

>LIST CUSTOMERS LAST-NAME FIRST-NAME

PAGE 1 10:54:53 DD MMM YYYY

CUSTOMERS...	Last Name...	First Name

HJENK7129	JENKINS	HAROLD
JBOHA5422	BOHANNON	JOHN
KBROO6749	BROOKS	KATHY
JBUCK6488	BUCKLER	JULIE
BLEAR6803	LEARY	BILL
JMASO6378	MASON	JULIA
AORLA5993	ORLANDO	AMY
SPIRS5289	PIRS	SANDRA
MASHX5777	ASH	MARY
AEDWA5224	EDWARDS	ANTHONY
JPEER5993	PEERCE	JAN
RPIER5539	PIERCE	RICK
AJOHN5396	JOHNSON	ANNE
HJOHN7265	JOHNSON	HENRY
HHIGG6849	HIGGINS	HENRY
DEDGE6635	EDGECOMB	DAVID
BLAMP6196	LAMPSON	BOB
AMEAD5619	MEADE	ANDREW

ITEMS LISTED.

Had the columns been too wide for the screen, items in the preceding report would be displayed as in the next report example.

PAGE 1 10:37:11 DD MMM YYYY

CUSTOMERS : HJENK7129

Last Name JENKINS

First Name HAROLD

CUSTOMERS : JBOHA5422

Last Name BOHANNON

First Name JOHN

CUSTOMERS : KBROO6749

Last Name BROOKS

First Name KATHY

CUSTOMERS : JBUCK6488

Last Name BUCKLER

First Name JULIE

CUSTOMERS : BLEAR6803

Last Name LEARY

First Name BILL

Calculate the width of a report using these instructions:

Add the width of all columns. Column width is either the width defined in line 10 of the Attribute Definition item, or the length of whatever is used as the column heading (i.e., either the item-ID of the Attribute Definition item or, if present, the column heading defined in line 3), whichever is greater.
Add one blank separator between each column in the report.