Manual
ICONV/OCONV PATTERNS
Decimal (MD/MC)
| input | conversion (string) | output |
|---|---|---|
| 1234 | MD2 | 12.34 |
| 1234 | MD20 | 1234.00 |
| 1234 | MD20, | 1,234.00 |
| 1234.5678 | MD2 | 12.35 |
| 1234.5678 | MD20 | 1234.57 |
| 1234.5678 | MD20, | 1,234.57 |
| 1234 | MC2 | 12,34 |
| 1234 | MC20 | 1234,00 |
| 1234 | MC20, | 1.234,00 |
| 1234 | MD20- | 1234.00 |
Date (D)
| input | conversion (string) | output |
|---|---|---|
| 12345 | D | 18 OCT 2001 |
| 12345 | D/ | 10/18/2001 |
| 12345 | D- | 10-18-2001 |
| 12345 | D2 | 18 OCT 01 |
| 12345 | D/E | 18/10/2001 |
| 12345 | DS | 2001 OCT 18 |
| 12345 | DS/ | 2001/10/18 |
| 12345 | DM | 10 |
| 12345 | DMA | OCTOBER |
| 12345 | DY | 2001 |
| 12345 | DY2 | 01 |
| 12345 | DD | 18 |
| 12345 | DW | 4 |
| 12345 | DWA | THURSDAY |
| 12345 | DQ | 4 |
| 12345 | DJ | 291 |
| 12345 | DL | 31 |
Time (MT)
| input | conversion (string) | output |
|---|---|---|
| 234800 | MT | 17:13 |
| 234800 | MTH | 05:13PM |
| 234800 | MTS | 17:13:20 |
| 234800 | MTHS | 05:13:20PM |
| 0 | MT | 00:00 |
| 0 | MTH | 12:00AM |
| 0 | MTS | 00:00:00 |
| 0 | MTHS | 12:00:00AM |
Hex (HEX/MX)
| input | conversion (string) | output |
|---|---|---|
| ab | HEX | (same as HEX8 or HEX4 depending on platform) |
| ab | HEX8 | 0000006100000062 |
| ab | HEX4 | 00610062 |
| ab | HEX2 | 6162 |
| 15 | MX | F |
| 254 | MX | FE |
| 255 | MX | FF |
| 256 | MX | 100 |
| 27354234 | MX | 1A1647A |
Text (L/R/T)
| input | conversion | (string)output |
|---|---|---|
| abcd | L#3 | abc |
| ab | L#3 | ab␣ |
| abcd | R#3 | bcd |
| ab | R#3 | ␣ab |
| ab | T#3 | ab␣ |
| abcd | T#3 | abc™d␣␣ |
| 42 | L(0)#5 | 42000 |
| 42 | R(0)#5 | 00042 |
| 42 | T(0)#5 | 42000 |
Dictionaries
Exodus dictionaries enable classic multivalue database data definition. Dictionaries are just normal Exodus multivalue files that contain one record for each data column definition. You can use Exodus's edir program to manually edit dictionaries.
Dictionary file names must start with the word "dict_". For example, if you have a "books" file, then you will probably have a "dict_books" file.
You can list the contents of a dictionary by typing "list dict_filename".
Exodus Dictionary Format
| 0 | DICTID | Field/Column Code |
| 1 | DICTTYPE | "F" or "S" : "F" means use Field No (i.e. raw data) and "S" means use Source Code (i.e. a function). |
| 2 | FIELDNO | Field number (0=key, 1=field 1 etc for "Fields" |
| 3 | TITLE | Title on reports |
| 4 | SM | S or M or Mnn : "Single Value" or "Multivalue" or "Multivalue Group nn" |
| 5 | KEYPARTNO | Multipart keys are separated by * characters. |
| 6 | ||
| 7 | CONVERSION | Conversion (MD/MT/D etc.) |
| 8 | SOURCE | Source Code of a subroutine to calculate the field. Multivalues are lines and the result must be placed in a variable "ANS". |
| 9 | JUST | "L" or "R" or "T" requesting left, right or text justification |
| 10 | WIDTH | Column Width on fixed width reports |
Sort/Select Command
Exodus provides the classic multivalue sort/select command within any Exodus program followed by readnext().
Classic multivalue select/readnext functions only provide the keys of the selected records. Exodus provides the classic select/readnext and also selectrecords/readnextrecord which provides complete records instead of just keys.
The format of the select/sselect command is as follows:
SELECT|SSELECT
{max_number_of_records}
{using filename}
filename
{datakeyvalue} ...
{BY|BY-DSND fieldname} ...
{
WITH
{NO|ALL|ANY}
dict_field_id
{
CONTAINING|STARTING|ENDING|LIKE|EQ|NE|NOT|GT|LT|GE|LE=|<>|>|<|>=|<= value(s)
|
BETWEEN value AND value
}
{AND|OR}
} ...
Functions and Commands
String Commands
Most string functions like trim() that return a new modified string have a corresponding modify in place command like function like trimmer() that is is usually much faster. So we have convert and converter, replace and replacer, insert and inserter and so on.
Therefore by preference use
trimmer(v1); // or v1.trimmer()
instead of
v1 = trim(v1); // or v1 = v1.trim();
Function Types
| TYPE | FUNCTION TYPE | |
|---|---|---|
| var= | traditional functions that return values and can be used in expressions and be on the right hand side of assignments | |
| if | traditional conditional statements that started with "if" or ended with "then/else" (or could have) | |
| cmd | traditional commands with no outputs | |
| expr | traditional commands that now have outputs and can be used in expressions |
Parameters/Argument Types
| in | Parameters that provide data to the function. Can be variables or raw data like 1 or "X" | |
| unspecified | Same as "in". Omission of the most common type de-clutters the documentation. NB When defining your own subroutines and functions "in" cannot be omitted from the source code. | |
| io | Parameters that may provide and/or return data. Must be variables. Cannot be raw data like 1 or "X" | |
| out | Parameters that return data. Must be variables. Cannot be raw data like 1 or "X" |
Optional Parameters
| Key | Default | |
|---|---|---|
| = "" | "" | |
| = " " | " " | |
| = "." | "." | |
| = 1 | 1 | |
| = 0 | 0 | |
| = true | true | |
| = false | false |
Field mark characters
Exodus implements a PICK OS data structure called a "dynamic array". This is simply any string which uses six specific unprintable ASCII delimiter characters (\x1A to \x1F) to separate its various parts. The parts are referred to as records, fields, values, subvalues, text, and subtext and fall within each other.
Dynamic arrays therefore implement sparse six dimensional arrays.
Typical CPU caching architecture favours similar values being adjacent in memory therefore implementing them as strings of values separated by delimiter characters can have performance advantages over more complex structures.
In practice the vast majority of dynamic arrays consist of "fields" separated by the FM character (\x1E) but it is very common for fields to have values separated by the VM character (\x1D) and values to have subvalues using SM (\x1D).
Since the six delimiter characters fall in the unprintable character range certain other characters have been designated as usable for coding and printing. For example the FM character is represented as ^ and can be entered in source code appended with _var to indicate that the string must be converted to internal format.
var v1 = "f1^f2^f3"_var; // Three fields
var v2 = "f1^v1]v2]v3^f3"_var; // Three fields, 2nd field has 3 values. It is "multivalued".
Anything which contains a collection of fields can be considered as a "record" and records can be stored in files with a unique primary key. The fields might represent different columns of a traditional database table. So anonymous field number 1 might be a contact name, field 2 the contact address, field 3 a multivalued list of contact points. etc.
| Delimiter name |
var | Hex | Display | cstr " " | char ' ' |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record Mark | RM | \x1F | ` | _RM | RM_ |
| Field Mark | FM | \x1E | ^ | _FM | FM_ |
| Value Mark | VM | \x1D | ] | _VM | VM_ |
| Subvalue Mark | SM | \x1C | } | _SM | SM_ |
| Text Mark | TM | \x1B | | | _TM | TM_ |
| Subtext Mark | STM | \x1A | ~ | _STM | STM_ |
| Delimiter Name : | Record Mark | Field Mark | Value Mark | Subvalue Mark | Text Mark | Subtext Mark |
| var : | RM | FM | VM | SM | TM | STM |
| Display : | ` | ^ | ] | } | | | ~ |
| Hex : | \x1F | \x1E | \x1D | \x1C | \x1B | \x1A |
| cstr " " : | _RM | _FM | _VM | _SM | _TM | _STM |
| char ' ' : | RM_ | FM_ | VM_ | SM_ | TM_ | STM_ |
