ID Options › How Format Identifiers Work › Limit the Number of Characters Printed

Limit the Number of Characters Printed

You can use the FORMAT option to limit the number of characters printed for each identifier. Truncation of the identifier names is done immediately before printing. Therefore, even if two identifiers are identical after truncation, their data will not be combined in the report.

For a complete description of the FORMAT option and its full syntax, see the chapter “Variable Options.”

The FORMAT option when used with ID options has the following syntax:

idoption FORMAT(nC)

n

Specifies the number of characters to appear in the output. For example, FORMAT(4C) indicates an output of four characters. The value of n has no limit.

Examples: With and Without the Format Option

• Sample report without the format option.

  The user IDs in this report could be shortened using the FORMAT option, saving enough column space to include another variable. Suppose your user IDs are eight characters long, a portion of a report on users could look like the following:

  USER     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     PROG     PROG     TERM
    ID      USE   ABENDS      CPU     TCPU     LIFE   MAX LIFE   STOR     WAITS     USE    ABENDS   WRITES
-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ------
AALBERTS      4        0    0.024    0.097    0.233    0.749     8934        3       16        0        5
AANDERSO      3        0    0.016    0.049    0.110    0.262    11872        3       15        0        4
ABROWN        9        2    0.070    0.630    83.11    370.5     8150        4       51        2       14
ABROWNIN     63        0    0.037    2.321    1.917    19.00     7665        5      198        0       44
ACHRISTI      3        1    0.082    0.247    123.7    370.8    11125        5       18        1        5
AKENNEDY     19        0    0.166    3.150    20.43    347.5    34520       41       61        0       16
ALEWIS        4        0    0.859    3.437    6.840    13.18     116K       13      176        0        4
APETERSO     12        0    0.080    0.961    0.240    0.472    22526        6       66        0       32
BAUSTEN      48        1    0.109    5.245    16.79    715.1    37487       10      304        1       56
  .           .    .  .      .        .         .         .       .          .        .         .        .

• Sample report with the FORMAT option

  The following commands include the option FORMAT(4C) and the additional variable TERM RESP:

  TAB USERID FORMAT(4C) FOR 10 SORT ALPHA,
  TRAN USE    AND TRAN ABENDS    AND,
       TRAN CPU    AND TRAN TCPU      AND,
       TRAN LIFE   AND TRAN MAXLIFE   AND,
       TRAN STOR   AND TRAN WAITS     AND,
       PROGRAM USE AND PROGRAM ABENDS AND,
       TERM USE    AND TERM RESP
  END
  RUN
  

  The following report is produced:

USER  TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN     TRAN    TRAN    PROG     PROG     TERM     TERM
  ID   USE    ABENDS     CPU     TCPU     LIFE   MAX LIFE   STOR    WAITS    USE    ABENDS   WRITES    RESP
---- ------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ------- ------- -------- -------- ------
AALB     4        0    0.024    0.097    0.233    0.749     8934       3      16        0        5    0.179
AAND     3        0    0.016    0.049    0.110    0.262    11872       3      15        0        4    0.075
ABRO     9        2    0.070    0.630    83.11    370.5     8150       4      51        2       14    0.213
ABRO    63        0    0.037    2.321    1.917    19.00     7665       5     198        0       44    0.344
ACHR     3        1    0.082    0.247    123.7    370.8    11125       5      18        1        5    0.218
AKEN    19        0    0.166    3.150    20.43    347.5    34520      41      61        0       16    1.467
ALEW     4        0    0.859    3.437    6.840    13.18     116K      13     176        0        4    6.840
APET    12        0    0.080    0.961    0.240    0.472    22526       6      66        0       32    0.072
BAUS    48        1    0.109    5.245    16.79    715.1    37487      10     304        1       56    1.499
 .           .    .    .         .     .   .     .   .         .       .      .        .        .        .
 .           .    .    .         .     .   .     .   .         .       .      .        .        .        .

Note: In the report, the user ID ABRO appears twice in the first column because the first four characters of two user IDs were the same.