Conversion Codes

The processing that English performs on data is controlled by means of data definition items. Attribute 2 of the data definition item generally points to the data in an item. Attributes 3, 9, and 10 provide guides for the columnar display of the output data.

However, you can specify further processing in attributes 8 and 7 of the definition item by means of conversion codes (sometimes also referred to as processing codes).

Attribute 8 holds codes that define processing performed before item selection or sorting (pre-processing).

Attribute 7 holds codes that define input/output processing, processing carried out immediately before output, or applied inversely to 'input' values (that is, values specified within an English sentence for comparison with attribute values on file). These codes often specify processing that modifies data for display by, for example, inserting periods, commas, slashes, and currency symbols, or by converting dates from internal to external format.

The following topics describe this in more detail:

• Attribute 8 Versus Attribute 7 Processing.

• Processing Stages.

• Detail Line Processing.

• Selection Processing.

• Sort Processing.

• TOTAL Connective Processing.

• BREAK-ON Connective Processing.

• Code Summary.