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

Chapter 4 129
Advanced Forms Design
Statement Syntax
Statement Syntax
The processing specifications consist of statement names followed by parameters. The
description of each statement uses the conventions defined at the beginning of the manual.
In order to understand the notation used in the statement formats in this section, you
should review these conventions.
Multiple statements can be placed on the same line by following the last parameter of the
statement by a blank and the next statement. If you want, you can separate statements on
the same line with an optional semicolon (;). For example:
MINLEN 5 GT 1000 LT 2500 3 statements without separator
MINLEN 5; GT 1000; LT 2500 3 statements separated by ;
Statements may begin anywhere on the line, except for nested IF statements where
indentation is significant. Multiple blanks are ignored within a line, except at the
beginning of a line in a nested IF statement.
Comments
Comments may be included in the text by preceding the comment with a backslash (\).
Anything typed between the backslash and the end of the line is ignored. For example:
Continuing Lines
Statements that are not completed before the first backslash or the end of the line can be
continued anywhere on the next line. A continuation character, the ampersand (&), is used
only when a string literal must be continued on the next line. The ampersand concatenates
two or more string literals to form one string. For example:
EQ "ABCDEF"& \This field must be the string of
"UVWXYZ" \the uppercase letters ABCDEFUVWXYZ.
Custom Error Messages
Whenever a field edit statement detects an error at run-time, the application can call the
appropriate VPLUS intrinsics to have an error message (provided by VPLUS) issued and
displayed in the window line, such as is done with ENTRY. You may choose to write a
custom message to be issued when a field fails a particular edit specification. To do this,
you specify the custom message in quotes immediately following the statement to which it
applies. Figure 4-1. illustrates a Field Menu in which the processing specifications contain
custom error messages. When and if the statement causes a field to fail, the custom
message is displayed instead of a VPLUS error message. For example:
MATCH udddd "Field has wrong format for Product Number"
GT 12
statement
\This field must have a value greater than 12.
comment