Controls the spacing between columns in the output of LIST and OUTPUT commands.

Syntax

SET COLUMNSPACING num

Parameters

Comments

The COLUMNSPACING option is set to 1 by default.

The SET COLUMNSPACING command specifies the number of spaces to be inserted between successive columns in the output generated by the LIST, SELECT, and OUTPUT commands.

Example

To specify three spaces between columns, use the following:

set columnspacing 3

See Also

LIST

OUTPUT

SELECT

Calculates the arcsine of a number.

Syntax

$asin(number)

Parameters

Return Value

Number, with the same number of decimal places as number.

Comments

Use $asin to calculate the arcsine (in radians) of a number. The value returned by this function has the same number of decimal places as number. The absolute value of the number must be between 0 and 1.

Example

let vAngle[2] = $asin(0.500)

The preceding command sets the second element of array variable vAngle to 0.524.

See Also

$acos

$atan

$atan2

$sin

$sinh

About Functional Expressions

MINUS

Removes the members of one or more result sets from a another result set.

Syntax

set1 MINUS set2

Parameters

Comments

When used within a FIND command, the result set contains all members of set1 that are not also in set2, and so on.

See Also

INTERSECT

Set Specification

UNION

Turns set-processing messages on and off.

Syntax

SET MEMBERCOUNT ON|OFF

Comments

When MEMBERCOUNT is set ON, messages tracking the progress of set-processing commands are output. Messages overwrite each other at intervals specified by the SET MEMBERINTERVAL command.

Progress messages take the form nnn processed. Messages are output with a carriage return but with no line feed; therefore, successive messages are written to the same screen position.

The printing of progress messages can slow execution slightly.

Example

> set membercount on
> set member interval 10
> find Employees
200 processed.
200 selected.
>

The number of records processed and selected are displayed in increments of ten until all records are processed.

See Also

$MemberCount

SET ERRORS

SET MEMBERINTERVAL

Performs a bit-wise NOT of a value.

Syntax

$not(char)

Parameters

Return Value

Character string.

Comments

The $not function reverses the bit pattern of a single character in the fashion of a Boolean NOT and returns the resulting character.

If the char string contains more than one character, only the first character in the string (one byte) is processed. Char can be expressed as a hex code.

Example

$not("E")

The bit pattern of hex 0E is 00001110. The above expression reverses the bit pattern to 11110001 (hex F1).

See Also

$and

$or

About Character Literals

About Functional Expressions

Indicates the character set used by the application database.

Syntax

$dbcharset

Return Value

2 for ANSI or 3 for UTF-8, depending on the character set specified when the database was initialized. Cannot be reset by an application program.

Description

When you initialize a new application database, the database (ZIMBOOT) administrative utility requires you to specify the character set to be used. Once the database has been initialized, the character set cannot be changed.
During an application session, the $DBCharSet system variable contains the name of the character set used by the current application database.

Example

ANSI is a Zim constant with a value of 2, so you could use the following:

if $DBCharSet = ANSI
...
endif

See Also

SET DOCUMENT FORMAT

Raises one value to the power of another.

Syntax

expression1 ^ expression2

The circumflex (^) raises the expression on the left to the power of the expression on the right. If the circumflex is not available on your terminal, substitute two asterisks (**).

Parameters

Comments

Arithmetic operators indicate the sign of a number or perform arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation).

See Also

About Arithmetic Expressions

Specifies if dependencies between objects are to be tracked.

Syntax

SET DEPENDENCY ON|OFF

Comments

The DEPENDENCY option is set ON by default.

When DEPENDENCY is ON, dependency information is stored when you CREATE, ERASE, or RENAME an object in the Object Dictionary. (For example, creating a relationship establishes dependencies between the relationship, the objects being related, and any fields belonging to the relationship.) Similarly, when you PARSE or COMPILE an application program, the dependencies of the program on objects referenced directly in the program is tracked. Dependency information is used by the system variable $compilestatus, and can also be used to document objects and programs.

You can save a small amount of disk space by switching dependency information OFF.

The SET DEPENDENCY command is not affected by the SET RESET and SET RESTORE commands.

See Also

DEPENDENCY

SET XREF

Returns the larger of a pair of numbers.

Syntax

$maxof(number1,number2)

Parameters

Return Value

The value returned by $maxof has the same number of decimal places as the number that is returned.

Comments

The function returns the larger of a pair of numbers.

Example

if event.eventname = "up"
let IndexPtr = $maxof(IndexPtr-1, 1)
else
... other commands ...
endif

Modifies an array index, without letting the index drop below 1.

See Also

$minof

About Functional Expressions

Returns the length of a character string.

Syntax

$length(string)

Parameters

Return Value

Number.

Comments

If string is a complex arithmetic expression, then the result of $length(string) is always 17. Arithmetic expressions are evaluated using the data type vastint so that the largest possible number can always be handled. When converted to a string, a vastint value occupies 17 positions, regardless of its numeric value.

Example

$length("abcdefgh")

Evaluates to 8.

$length(5*3)

Evaluates to 17.