Controlling the Default Format of Report Output

Introducing format options

You can use several options that control the default format of report output. The following table lists the format options you will use most often.

Option	Description
COLWIDTH	Controls the width of data columns. Default: 10 characters.
DECIMALS	Controls the number of decimal places shown for DECIMAL values. Default: 2 places.
LCOLWIDTH	Controls the width of the labels column (the first column). Default: 14 characters.
PARENS	Controls whether negative numbers are represented with parentheses or a minus sign. Default: NO (a minus sign is used).

The effect of using format options

By changing the value of a format option, you change the format of output produced by subsequent ROW commands. If you want to use a specific format more or less consistently throughout your report, then you should set the relevant options to the appropriate values in the initialization section of your report program.

Example: Setting the DECIMALS option

If you want to suppress all decimals in your report, then include the following command in the initialization section of your report program.

decimals = 0

Overriding OLAP DML format options

After setting an option, you might find that you want to use a different format for an occasional row of data. In this case, you can specify a format attribute in the particular ROW command to override the value of the corresponding option.

Related information

For more information, see the following table.

IF you want documentation about . . .	THEN see . . .
on the format options,	search for the entries for the individual options in the OLAP DML Reference
table of all the OLAP DML format options that affect report output,	the entry for the ROW command in the OLAP DML Reference