Documenting the Field: DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION is an optional attribute that enables you to provide comments and other documentation for a field within the Master File. You can include any comment up to 2K (2048) characters in length.

Note that you can also add documentation to a field declaration, or to a segment or file declaration, by typing a comment in the columns following the terminating dollar sign. You can even create an entire comment line by inserting a new line following a declaration and placing a dollar sign at the beginning of the line. The syntax and rules for creating a Master File are described in Understanding a Data Source Description.

The DESCRIPTION attribute for a FOCUS data source can be changed at any time without rebuilding the data source.

Master Files support description attributes for multiple languages. For information, see Multilingual Metadata.

Syntax: How to Supply Field Documentation 

DESC[RIPTION] = text

where:

DESCRIPTION

Can be shortened to DESC. Abbreviating the keyword has no effect on its function.

text

Is any string of up to 2K (2048) characters. If it contains a comma, the string must be enclosed within single quotation marks.

Example: Specifying a DESCRIPTION

The following FIELD declaration provides a DESCRIPTION: 

FIELD=UNITS,ALIAS=QTY,USAGE=I6, DESC='QUANTITY SOLD, NOT RETURNED',$

Reference: Usage Notes for DESCRIPTION

Note the following rules when using the DESCRIPTION attribute:

  • Alias. The DESCRIPTION attribute has an alias of DEFINITION.
  • Changes. You can change DESCRIPTION at any time.
  • Virtual fields. You can use the DESCRIPTION attribute for a virtual field created with the DEFINE attribute.
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