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

68 Chapter3
INTRODUCTION TO FORMS DESIGN
EASE OF FORMS DESIGN
entered, how it is formatted for data movement, and the type of operations that can be
performed on the field.
Screen data types impose format and edit rules for data entered on the screen. ARB data
types determine how that data will be interpreted by the application. Conversions from
screen data type to ARB data type and vice versa occur automatically at runtime (see
VGET/PUTBUFFER in section 7).
Screen Data Type. Valid screen data types are: CHAR, NUM(n), DIG, IMPn, MDY,
DMY, and YMD. Figure 3-4. illustrates how each numeric data type interprets an
entered value on the screen. The data types are described in the following paragraphs.
Default CHAR
Character Type. CHAR Data entered in the field is assumed to be a string of any
characters. No validity checking is performed on data at
time of entry. No arithmetic operations can be performed
on data of this type. The user can enter any characters in a
CHAR type field. (As noted above, CHAR is the default data
type.)
For example, $12.59, A-15-75, and **123** are all
legitimate entries.
Numeric Types. NUM[
n ] Data entered in a field of this type must be numeric. The
maximum number of decimal places can be indicated by
the optional digit, n, where n is a value between 0 and 9. If
you omit the value, n, the data item is assumed to have a
floating decimal point.
Validity checking is performed on this data type. An
optional leading sign (+ or -) is allowed. Commas are
allowed, but if included they must be correctly placed. An
optional decimal point may be included in the data. When
Native Language Support is used, the symbols used to
indicate thousands and decimals are language-dependent.
For more information on Native Language Support, see
Section 8.
The user must enter numeric data in this field. If n
specifies a maximum number of decimal positions, the
user must include a decimal point when the value has
decimal places, and may omit the decimal point when it
does not.
For example, in a NUM2 field, the user can enter a value
with no decimal places (such as 500) or a value with one
decimal place (such as 5.5) or a value with two decimal
places (such as 5.95). Commas and a sign may also be
included. For example, the following are legitimate entries
for a NUM2 field: 1,390, -327.00, +100,000.00 and so
forth; but the value 5.678 is disallowed as it has too many
decimal places.