Record Formatting Examples
In order to allow different formats for different groups (or tables) of data, each
of which have an unpredictable number of entries, a Record ID is assigned to each
output record to identify the type of record and control layout formatting. An application
can group data fields that are to be formatted together as an entity into Data Records
with a specific Record ID. For example, in a bank statement, the data fields for a
check transaction might be grouped together with a Record ID identifying that record
as a check transaction. The PAGEDEF would then define a special layout format for a check transaction with a matching
Record ID.
The same thing could be done for a deposit transaction, customer account information, deposit totals, check totals, etc. If the customer account information is going to be used in a page header on each page, the PAGEDEF can define a special layout format for a customer information record that automatically generates a page header for each page.
This section shows two complete examples using the record formatting process. Each is divided into three parts - the desired output (after PAGEDEF processing), the application output (before PAGEDEF processing), and the PPFA commands.