Data field width

The width of a data field is determined by the value you specify for the ENTWIDTH attribute of the DTAFLD tag. You should specify ENTWIDTH for all data fields. In the previous example, ENTWIDTH is specified for each DTAFLD tag except for the Title field, whose length is determined as discussed next.

If you do not specify a value for ENTWIDTH, the width of the data field is determined by the value specified for the TYPE attribute of the VARCLASS tag associated with the variable named in the DTAFLD DATAVAR attribute. For example, the Title field in Figure 1 has an entry width of 50 as determined by the variable class titlcls, which has the TYPE value “char 50”. This variable class is associated with the data field through the variable declaration title, which is specified as the data field's DATAVAR attribute value. For more information about variables and variable classes, see Variables and variable classes.

The formatted width of the field is 2 positions more than the ENTWIDTH value to provide for an attribute byte both before and after the field. The maximum width for an entry field is the remaining available formatting width in the panel.

Note: The conversion utility tracks the remaining width available for use. For data fields, the width of the entry field has first priority, followed by the prompt width, and then the description width.