HP 3000 Manual page 51

Right-justifying entries is recommended. The starting (from) position of the input records ends in column
12. The end (to) position ends in column 16. In the example above, because it is a 1-character field, the 9-
12 positions are left blank and the entry of the character's position is right-justified in column 16.
Field Length
The maximum allowable length of the field depends on your column 8 entry.
COL. 8
ENTRY
P 14 characters
U 28 characters
C 256 characters
V 1 character
Column 17: Conditionally Forced Characters
Forced control fields were generally discussed under the description of column 7 entries. In column 17 you
make an entry only when you wish to use a conditional force; for example, if you wanted to place a $ in a
control field presently containing an A, conditional force does not change the input record but it will
replace each A with a $ in that position in the work and output records.
Your entry in column 17 identifies the character that you want replaced in the control field. XSORT checks
the input records to see if the control field contains the character you want replaced. Your entry in column
18 will then give XSORT the character you wish to have forced into that control field's position in the work
record.
Sometimes control fields contain any one of several characters and you may wish to force a change for each
of them. If this is the case, use a continuation character in column 19 (discussed below) on the
specifications for all but the first of the forced characters.
Column 18: Forced Character
The discussion of column 7 entries covers the subject of forced characters in detail. You use your column
18 entry only when you are using forced control fields to sort your records or when you are using forced
data fields. In forcing a control field, the entry in column 18 either replaces the character you specified in
column 17 or adds a character to the work record. If you are using the entry to force a data field, the
character in column 18 will be added in the next available data field position of the work record.
NOTE
You can only use forced characters with 1-character fields, and your input records are
MAXIMUM FIELD LENGTH
3-53