Constant fields are unnamed fields (positions 19 through 28 must be blank), or fields with a special name (*NONE) when POSITION (Position) keyword is used in the record.
The following rules apply when specifying a constant field:
- Positions 17 through 38 must be blank if you specify the location of the field in positions 39 through 44.
Positions 17, 18, and 29 through 44 must be blank if you
specify the POSITION keyword.
- The field can be conditioned using option indicators (positions 7 through 16).
- You can specify a constant field in a record format that
has a BOX, ENDPAGE, GDF, LINE, OVERLAY, or PAGSEG keyword specified on the
record, only if you have specified a POSITION keyword on the constant field.
- The constant itself is defined in positions 45 through 80 using one of
the following constant field keywords:
- Explicit DFT keyword (specify the value within apostrophes with the DFT keyword)
- Implicit DFT keyword (specify the value within apostrophes without the DFT keyword)
- DATE keyword (specify no value)
- TIME keyword (specify no value)
- PAGNBR keyword (specify no value)
- MSGCON keyword (specify the message description, the message file, the library name, and the length of the message description)
- The EDTCDE or the EDTWRD keyword can be specified for constant fields only when DATE, TIME, or PAGNBR keywords are also specified.
When specifying a location (positions 39 through 44) for constant fields, you can specify the fields in any order if you use line numbers. If you do not use line numbers, you must specify the fields in the order in which they are to appear on the printed page.
When you specify the POSITION keyword with a constant field,
the special name *NONE signifies the start of the field in the DDS source.
Therefore, you must specify the POSITION keyword or any other keyword associated
with the constant field, either on the same line as the constant
field keyword or on a subsequent line.