Using an Argument File

To print the same report on different printers with different characteristics, you can save values for the different page sizes, printer initializations, and fonts in separate files and use a command-line argument to specify which file to use. For example, the following command line code example passes the value 18 to SQR:

sqr myreport sammy/baker 18

An #INCLUDE command in the report file selects the printer18.dat file based on the command-line argument:

begin-setup
  ask num      ! Printer number.
  #include 'printer{num}.dat'  ! Contains #DEFINE commands for 
               ! printer and paper width and length
  declare-layout report
        paper-size =({paper_width} {paper_length})
  end-declare
end-setup

In this example, the ASK command assigns the value 18 to the num variable; 18 is a compile-time argument. The #INCLUDE command then uses the value of num to include the printer18.dat file, which could include commands like this:

! Printer18.dat-definitions for printer in Bldg 4.
#define paper_length 11
#define paper_width 8.5
#define bold_font LS12755
#define light_font LS13377
#define init HM^J73011