Display Mask (Date/Time)
Display Mask for a date/time item determines which parts included in the data dictionary Store/thru specification (month, year, or hour, for example) display on an image. This entry can include more or less parts than the data dictionary, and can be presented in a different order. If more parts are included, those parts that are not present in the data dictionary are discarded from the mask before presentation to a user. Each position in a mask may contain a part placeholder, a pad character, a special character, text, or a separator character.
Part placeholder designates the parts of a date that are physically stored.Valid options are:
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88
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Century
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77
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Year
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66
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Month
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55
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Day
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44
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Hour
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33
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Minute
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22
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Second
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11
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Tick (hundredth of a second)
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Pad characterof 0 to force the display of a leading 0 in any part that contains a single-digit value. For example, 04 could be used to indicate that you wish to store hours and wish for a leading zero to be printed whenever the hours are less than 10.
Special Characters
" ". Any characters enclosed within quotation marks, including special characters, are considered text and display on an image exactly as they appear on a mask.
\ (constant next character). Any single character immediately following the back-slash, including a special character, is considered text and displays on an image exactly as it appears on a mask.
~ (reserved for APPX's internal use). This character should never be used, unless enclosed in quotation marks or immediately preceded by a back-slash.
Text including, but not limited to, information in the categories listed below can be inserted anywhere on a mask.
Month names, such as January or Jan (the first three characters of a month)
Day names, such as Monday or Mon (the first three characters of the day)
AM/PM or am/pm designations
Punctuation, such as , or .
Numeric suffixes, such as th or rd
Literals enclosed in " "
Separator characters, such as :, /, or -
APPX automatically translates month and day names based on the actual month and day stored in the field. This text translation is case-sensitive. For example, if you enter MONDAY on a mask and the stored data is actually Wednesday, APPX translates it as WEDNESDAY, rather than Wednesday.
The text defined on a date/time display mask can include any characters with the exception of the special characters: quotation marks (" "), back-slashes (\), and tilde marks (~). To include any of these characters as text on a mask, each special character must be preceded by a back-slash (\). Special characters do not occupy space when a field displays on an image.
To include descriptions for a day of the week or month of the year on a display mask, simply enter any day or month description. APPX translates your entry into the appropriate day or month description based upon the data to be displayed. For example, a display mask defined as Monday, January 05, 0807, displays any of the following, depending on the data in the field: Sunday, January 1, 1989, or Thursday, April 6, 1989, or Saturday, August 18, 1990. The display expands or contracts as necessary to accommodate varying lengths of the possible day and month descriptions. (To avoid translation of Monday, for example, you must enclose the text in quotation marks: "Monday".)
APPX's description translations are case-sensitive (APPX maintains the capitalization that is defined on a mask), and are also sensitive to abbreviations. If you enter Monday on a mask, APPX translates as Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, etc. If you enter Mon on a mask, APPX translates as Tue or Wed or Thu, etc. (The short version of a month or day name is always represented by the first three characters in the name.)
If you wish to display time information on a 12-hour rather than a 24-hour basis, you can include an am or pm designation anywhere on a mask. APPX translates the characters according to the stored data. If a mask includes am and the data is 3:00 in the afternoon, APPX substitutes pm for am. These translations are also case-sensitive (am versus AM, for example).
It is possible to encounter data with less or more digits than what is defined on a mask. If the data has more characters than defined on a display mask, the screen or printed output displays only the characters that are defined on the mask.
If the display mask defines more parts of a date or time than the Store thru parameter, any parts not stored are ignored when the mask is displayed.
APPX's date/time masking facility is designed to provide maximum flexibility. Any mask format, if not specifically excluded below, is permitted.
All part placeholders must be entered as two characters.
An am/pm designation is meaningful only in a mask that contains an hour placeholder. Otherwise, it is treated as text.
Masks cannot have noncontiguous part placeholders, such as a year and an hour placeholder. This should not be interpreted to place restrictions on the order that the parts display in the mask.
Month names or day names are only valid in masks that include sufficient part placeholders to identify a specific month or day within a specific year.
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