Asterisk

The “*” (asterisk) is used as a placeholder for a field value. It is used in two ways:

• caption — for break subtotals. The break field value will print to the left on the same line as the subtotals.

The caption here is “CUS:” with a space and the asterisk. The caption prints to the left of the subtotal. The customer name replaces the asterisk:

(See also: Print — Break)

• mask — (or its synonym using), used with concatenation or combining fields to print several fields in a single column:

Here we are printing the customer name, city, state and zip. The city field has a mask. The city will print with the city value followed by a comma and a space. By using the asterisk, the printing of the field becomes conditional. If the city is blank, the comma doesn’t print.

The first line above has no city and no comma. (See also: Print — Combining Fields)

 

Page 1 — mask
Page 2 — the asterisk
Page 3 — numeric masks
Page 4 — decimal masks
Page 5 — date mask

Next – Numeric mask >