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Revision as of 09:15, 1 August 2014 editEdwardH (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users3,690 edits Added {{unreferenced}}.← Previous edit Revision as of 16:06, 8 August 2014 edit undoEdwardH (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users3,690 edits Merged content to COBOL#Picture clause. See Talk:COBOL#Proposed merger of Picture clause.Next edit →
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A '''picture clause''' is an element in ] that is used to describe a ], by using sample characters that indicate the item characteristics and size.

== History ==
The picture clause was first used in the ] (Commercial Translator) language developed by ] of ] in 1957. In 1959, it was incorporated into the original definition of ]. Since then, many other programming languages have copied this feature.

== Formatting ==
A picture clause is made up of various format characters, each of which represents a certain portion of the data item. Each format character can be repeated or followed by a repeat number, which specifies the number of times the format item occurs in the data item. Some examples (from COBOL) are:

{| class="wikitable" width="80%"
|- bgcolor="#F0F0F0"
! Character
! Description
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''A'''
|Alphabetic character (<code>A-Z</code>, <code>a-z</code>, or blank)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''B'''
|Blank (space) character
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''CR'''
|Sign indicator (<code>'CR'</code> if negative, blanks if positive)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''DB'''
|Sign indicator (<code>'DB'</code> if negative, blanks if positive)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''E'''
|Floating-point exponent<ref name="extension">Non-standard extension provided by ] and others</ref>
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''G'''
|Double-byte (]) graphic/alphanumeric character<ref name="extension"/>
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''N'''
|Double-byte (DBCS) character<ref name="extension"/>
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''P'''
|Implied scaling digit (not displayed)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''S'''
|Implied sign (not displayed)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''V'''
|Implied decimal point (not displayed)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''X'''
|Any character, alphabetic, numeric, or other symbol
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''Z'''
|Numeric digit, but leading-zero-suppressed (replaced by a blank when equal to zero)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''0'''
|Inserted <code>'0'</code> digit
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''9'''
|Numeric digit (<code>0-9</code>)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''/'''
|Inserted <code>'/'</code> character
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| ''','''
|Inserted digit group separator<ref name="comma">The comma and decimal point can be switched for European use</ref>
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''.'''
|Inserted decimal point<ref name="comma"/>
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''+'''
|Sign (<code>'-'</code> if negative, <code>'+'</code> if positive)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''-'''
|Sign (<code>'-'</code> if negative, blank if positive)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''$'''
|Floating currency sign (blank for leading zeroes, <code>'$'</code> to the left of the most significant digit, otherwise digit <code>0-9</code>)
|-
|bgcolor="#E0FFFF" align="center"| '''*'''
|Floating digit fill (<code>'*'</code> for leading zeroes, otherwise digit <code>0-9</code>)
|}

== Examples ==
Examples from COBOL.
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|- bgcolor="honeydew"
! Picture clause!! Data type!! Sample values
|-
||<code>PIC 999</code> ||3-digit number || 123, 005, 087, any number from 000 through 999
|-
||<code>PIC S999</code> ||3-digit internally signed number || +123, −005, +087, any number from −999 through +999, sign is not displayed
|-
||<code>PIC +999</code> ||3-digit output signed number || +123, −005, +087, any number from −999 through +999, with sign displayed
|-
||<code>PIC ZZ9</code> ||3-digit number, leading zeros suppressed || 123, 5, 87, any number from 000 through 999
|-
||<code>PIC A(8)</code> ||8-character alphabetic string || <code>"Fredrick"</code>, <code>"Fred "</code>, <code>"Fred Jr "</code>, any string of 8 alphabetic letters (may include spaces)
|-
||<code>PIC X(8)</code> ||8-character string || <code>"Smithson"</code>, <code>"O'Riley "</code>, <code>"Bon-Jovi"</code>, <code>"23Skidoo"</code>, any string of 8 characters (may include any valid character)
|-
|}

== Footnotes ==
<references/>

{{prog-lang-stub}}

]
]

]

Revision as of 16:06, 8 August 2014

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