DESCRIPT Statement

The VM Interface › Reporting Component › Report Control Statements › DESCRIPT Statement

DESCRIPT Statement

Position	Field Length	Field Name	Notes
1	1	Set Code	Optional
2-9	8	Statement Type	DESCRIPT
10	1	Summarization Level	0 = any level 1 = 1st sort level (most general level) 2 = 2nd sort level 3 = 3rd sort level 4 = 4th sort level 5 = 5th sort level (most detailed level)
11-18	8	Description Control Field	Matches Sort Control Field unless Variable Description feature is used. In that case: Position Length Notes 11-14 4 **** asterisks 15-16 2 'TO' location in DESCRIPT Field, relative to 1 17 1 number of characters to be moved 18 1 'FROM' location in Control Field, relative to 1 (Refer to Variable Description feature)
19-38	20	Description Field	Refer to DE ID 02 in the Output Data Elements Table
39-80	42	Reserved	Not used

This statement, identified by DESCRIPT, is optional. When selected, it provides a description of summary line information. Refer to DE ID 02 in the VM Output Data Elements Table.

The summarization level defines which sort control break the DESCRIPT statement refers to. For example, a user may select Product Name as the major sort control field. The Report Writer summarizes the accounting data and prints a summary line for all processing under each product and a final summary line for all products combined. To clarify the report, you can define a Summarization Description for each control break or summary line. In this example, the user might prepare the following set of DESCRIPT statements:

ADESCRIPT1DSM     SCRIPT JOBS
ADESCRIPT1PROFS   OFFICE MANAGEMENT
ADESCRIPT1JSIMAIN JARS REPORT RUNS
             .
             .
             .
ADESCRIPT1        UNIDENTIFIED CLASS

For a description of the user sort control fields, see page :spotref refid=vsort.. These sort control fields may be a maximum of eight characters in length. Unused characters are padded with trailing blanks. The Description Control Field must be the same as the 8-character sort control field. The description control field and a sort control field must match character for character to associate the correct description with the corresponding sort control break.

You may find that you require the same DESCRIPT statements for different report formats: the only variation is the summarization level. In one report the user might use product name as the level one sort control field, as in this example, and in another report use product name as a level 2 or 3 sort control field. The only difference in the two sets of DESCRIPT statements is the set code and the summarization level indicator.

You can however, leave the set code blank and define the summarization level as 0 this makes the summarization description available to all reports and to any control break, not just the level one break as in the example.

You must use the any level summarization level with caution. Certain reports, for example, one sorted by

level 1=department number
level 2=group number
level 3=employee number

In such cases, the user must specify summarization level to make sure that the right description appears at the right level.

Note: If fewer than five sort levels are used in a report, the user may identify them as:

1, 2, and 3;
2, 3, and 4; or even
1, 4, and 5.

Level numbers indicate relative positions; the precise number selected is only important because the level number on the DESCRIPT statement must match that defined on the SORT statement.