The M keyboard shift defines a character field that allows you
to type only the digits 0 through 9, plus (+), minus (-), comma (,), period
(.), and blank into the field.
The Field Exit, Field+ Exit, Field- Exit, and Dup keys are
allowed. The Field+ Exit is processed as an unsigned Field Exit. The Field-
Exit is processed as follows:
- If you do not specify CHECK(RZ) or CHECK(RB), the farthest right position
is changed to a brace.
- If you specify CHECK(RZ) or CHECK(RB), the last character you type into
the field must be a digit (or a keyboard error is issued). The farthest right
digit, n, is converted from hex Fn (positive) to hex Dn (negative).
The display length for an M field is the length coded in positions 30 through
34. You must include any additional positions needed for a sign character
or decimal point in the field length.
The field displays as a blank-filled field when you do
not specify any keyword. If you specify a CHECK(RZ) keyword, the field displays
as right-aligned zero. If you specify a CHECK(RB) keyword, the field displays
as right-aligned blank filled.
When the
i5/OS™ operating
system passes the contents of the field to a program, the following considerations
apply:
- The program always sees a character field.
- The field length in the input buffer is the program length.
- The field contents are passed directly to the program. The i5/OS operating
system neither converts embedded blanks to zeros nor removes nonnumeric characters,
such as sign characters and decimal points.
In a database file, you can specify the M keyboard shift on the REFSHIFT
keyword if the field data type is character (A).