HP Data Entry and Forms Management System (VPLUS) Reference Manual (32209-90024)

108 Chapter3
INTRODUCTION TO FORMS DESIGN
SAVE FIELD MENU
and the name of the save field to be deleted in the field name box.
Fields
Save Field Name A standard field identifier composed of up to 15 USASCII
characters, beginning with an upper or lowercase letter.
The remaining characters can be upper or lowercase
letters, digits, or underlines. For example, SF3, D2 15, or
ALPHA. Note that if you use a lowercase letter in a name,
FORMSPEC shifts it to an uppercase letter. (The name
must not be one of the reserved words listed earlier in
Table 3-2.
Length Like other fields, save fields must be assigned a length,
representing the maximum number of characters allowed
in the field. Note that you must supply a field length,
unlike field specifications where field length is determined
from the screen design. Since save fields may be used as
accumulators, it is important that the save field length be
long enough to avoid rounding and/or truncation when
summed values are moved to the field.
Data Type The data types allowed are the same as for any field. The
general types are character (CHAR), numeric (NUM[n],
IMPn, or DIG), or date (MDY,YMD, or DMY). (Refer to
"Ease of Forms Design" for a complete discussion of these
data types.)
Initial Value An initial value may be assigned to any save field. This is
an optional specification; if omitted, all fields are set to
blanks ($EMPTY). If specified, the initial value must be the
same type as the specified data type. Values are entered
exactly as if they were entered by a terminal user; that is,
characters are not delimited by quotes, and dates are not
delimited by exclamation points. For example:
12.5 type is NUM1
3790 type is DIG
FEB 3, 86 type is MDY
John type is CHAR
When the forms file is opened, initial values (default or
specified) are assigned to the save fields.