CLEAR

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Sets elements in a structure (record format, data structure, array, table or a form) or a variable (field, subfield, property or indicator), to zero, blank or “0”, depending on field type (numeric, character, or indicator). It allows you to clear structures on a global basis, as well as element by element, during run-time.

 CLEAR
Result  (Value)
Exclude (*<u>NONE</u> | *NOKEY)
Occurance (<u>*CURRENT</u> | *ALL | *RECORDS)
Type (<u>*NONE</u>| *BINARY | *BOOLEAN | *BYTE | *CHAR | *DECIMAL | *FLOAT | *FLOAT4 | *FLOAT8 | *IND |
      *INTEGER | *INTEGER2 | *INTEGER4 | *INTEGER8 | *ONECHAR | *PACKED | *ZONED)
Len (Length Integer, [Decimal Integer]

Parameters

Result

Required. Contains the elements to clear.

Exclude

Optional. Must be *NONE or not given unless Occurance contains a DISK record format name; in which case, it can contain *NOKEY to indicate that all fields except key fields are to be cleared.

Occurrance

Optional. Valid only if the Result is a table, a record format, or a multiple occurrence data structure. *CURRENT is the default.

  • If *CURRENT (or nothing) is given, only the current occurrence will be cleared.
  • If *ALL is given, all occurrences will be cleared.
  • *RECORDS is only valid when clearing a subfile, and it means that the records will be removed from the subfile. If *RECORDS is not specified for a subfile, the subfile record format will be cleared in the same manner as any other file.
  • If you have partially overlapping fields of different definitions, data that is not valid could exist in numeric fields.
  • If you specify an array name, the entire array is cleared. If you specify an array element (including indicators) in factor 2 using an array index, only the element specified is cleared.

Type

Optional. Can be any of the types listed. *NONE is the default. See Type Parameter for further information.

Len

Optional. Defines the length of the field. If Len is decimal (3,1) *ZONED is assigned as the default. If Len is character (3), *CHAR is assigned as the default.

Depending upon the Type specified, the Len parameter may be required. For instance, types of *CHAR, *PACKED, *ZONED will require a Len . A compiler message will display if the Len parameter is needed.

Remarks

Time/Date/TimeStamp fields will be set to a default value depending on their type equal to 0001-01-01.00.00.00.000000.

Any property can be cleared, and any control that has a default property can be cleared. The default values work as follows:

  • Numeric properties: set to 0.
  • String properties: set to the empty string.
  • Picture properties: set to no picture.
  • Boolean properties: set to False (*OFF).
  • Date properties: set to 0001-01-01-00.00.00.000000

See Also

WRITE