11.3.1 Forms for Control Edit Descriptors

A control edit descriptor takes one of the following forms:

 c
 cn
 nc

c

Is one of the following format codes: T, TL, TR, X, S, SP, SS, BN, BZ, P, :, /, \, $, and Q.

n

Is a number of character positions. It must be a positive default integer literal constant; or variable format expression; no kind parameter can be specified. It cannot be a named constant.

The range of n is 1 through 2147483647 (2**31-1) on Alpha processors; 1 through 32767 (2**15-1) on Intel processors. Actual useful ranges may be constrained by record sizes (RECL=) and the file system.

Rules and Behavior

In general, control edit descriptors are nonrepeatable. The only exception is the slash (/) edit descriptor, which can be preceded by a repeat specification.

The control edit descriptors have the following specific forms:

Positional:	Tn, TLn, TRn, and nX
Sign:	S, SP, and SS
Blank interpretation:	BN and BZ
Scale factor:	kP
Miscellaneous:	:, /, \, $, and Q

The P edit descriptor is an exception to the general control edit descriptor syntax. It is preceded by a scale factor, rather than a character position specifier.

Control edit descriptors can be grouped in parentheses and preceded by a group repeat specification.

For More Information:

• On format specifications, in general, see Section 11.1.

• On group repeat specifications, see Section 11.5.