HP System Dictionary/XL COBOL Definition Extractor (32257-90001)

C- 104

Generating the PICTURE Clause from the Edit Mask

If you request generation of the PICTURE clause from the edit-mask, all other attributes pertaining to the

clause are ignored. Only if the element's type cannot be determined from the edit-mask is the element-

type attribute used to determine if the value is alphanumeric or numeric.

If no edit-mask attribute exists, the PICTURE is determined using other attribute data as shown in Table

C-1.

SDCDE uses the synchronize and justify attributes to generate the corresponding SYNCHRONIZE LEFT

and JUSTIFIED RIGHT clauses, regardless of whether the PICTURE clause is generated from the edit-

mask attribute or not.

In order to generate the PICTURE clause from the edit-mask, some characters must be translated into

COBOL edit characters. Table C-2 maps the translation of each System Dictionary edit-mask character to

its corresponding COBOL edit mask character.

NOTE The currency sign would not be $ if the CURRENCY SIGN IS clause is used.

In addition to the above, the repetition characters are also considered valid COBOL edit characters. Thus,

any numbers that are enclosed in parentheses ( X(15) ) are considered valid.

Table 4: Edit-Mask Translation

SYSTEM DICTIONARY

EDIT MASK CHARACTER

COBOL

EDIT MASK CHARACTER

(blank)

All others

X if type is X or U, otherwise 9

Not a COBOL edit character

No other characters are allowed