You can specify a format for variable values. For example, you can force values to lowercase or uppercase, truncate the length of values, or place values between quotes.
You embed formatting options in variable syntax as follows:
%[[?][-][width][.[-]precision][c][H][F][U|L][T][M][q][Q]:]<varname>%
The variable formatting options are the following:
|
option |
Description |
|---|---|
|
? |
Mandatory field, if a null value is returned the translate call fails |
|
n (where n is an integer) |
Blanks or zeros added to the right to fill the width and justify the output to the left |
|
-n |
Blanks or zeros added to the left to fill the width and justify the output to the right |
|
width |
Copies the specified minimum number of characters to the output buffer |
|
.[-]precision |
Copies the specified maximum number of characters to the output buffer |
|
.L |
Lower-case characters |
|
.U |
Upper-case characters |
|
.F |
Combined with L and U, applies conversion to first character |
|
.T |
Leading and trailing white space trimmed from the variable |
|
.H |
Converts number to hexadecimal |
|
.c |
Upper-case first letter and lower-case next letters |
|
.n |
Truncates to n first characters |
|
.-n |
Truncates to n last characters |
|
M |
Extracts a portion of the variable name, this option uses the width and precision parameters to identify the portion to extract |
|
q |
Enquotes the variable (single quotes) |
|
Q |
Enquotes the variable (double quotes) |
You can combine format codes. For example, %.U8:CHILD% formats the code of the child table with a maximum of eight uppercase letters.
The following examples show format codes embedded in the variable syntax for the constraint name template for primary keys, using a table called CUSTOMER_PRIORITY:
|
Format |
Use |
|---|---|
|
.L |
Lower-case characters. Example: PK_%.L:TABLE% Result: PK_customer_priority |
|
.Un |
Upper-case characters + left justify variable text to fixed length where n is the number of characters. Example: PK_%.U12:TABLE% Result: PK_CUSTOMER_PRI |
|
.T |
Trim the leading and trailing white space from the variable. Example: PK_%.T:TABLE% Result: PK_customer_priority |
|
.n |
Maximum length where n is the number of characters. Example: PK_%.8:TABLE% Result: PK_Customer |
|
-n |
Pad the output with blanks to the right to display a fixed length where n is the number of characters. Example: PK_%-20:TABLE% Result: PK_ Customer_priority |
|
M |
Extract a portion of a variable. Example: PK%3.4M:TABLE% Result: PK_CUST |