Creating Report Columns

How columns are created

Even though each ROW command creates just one row of data, the data values are positioned in the row so that they will line up with the values in other rows of the report. Therefore, we refer to the space occupied by each data value as a column.

The ROW command places the first expression in the first report column, the second expression in the second column, and so on.

Creating columns for labels and data

You can show any value in any column of a row, but the first column usually contains labels and the remaining columns usually contain data. Therefore, the first column is called the labels column. The remaining columns are called data columns.

Default layout of a report row

The default width of the labels column is controlled by the LCOLWIDTH option, which has a default value of 14 characters. The default width of data columns is controlled by the COLWIDTH option, which has a default value of 10 characters.

By default, text and date values in a column are left-justified, and numeric and Boolean values are right-justified. One space is left between columns.

A default row has the format shown in the next figure.

Leaving a column blank

You can use the SKIP keyword in place of an expression to leave a column blank. The command

row skip units sales

produces a blank column before the column of UNITS data.

200  32,153.52