Display-Columns

This property can be used to set or retrieve the starting position of each column in the List-Box. As a consequence, it defines the number of columns. The width of each column depends on the starting position of the next column. The last column always extends to the right side of the List-Box. If a column starts at a position that exceeds the size of the List-Box, its content is never shown. This can be useful to store information, linked to each single item, that should not be seen by the user.

Since this property must be set for each column, a list of values is needed in order to determine the starting position of each column.

When values are enclosed between parentheses, a new list is defined at once. The snippet below defines a grid with three columns, 10 characters wide. The first column always starts at 1.

DISPLAY-COLUMNS = (1, 11, 21)

Setting this property to 0 resets the list.

When a single value greater than zero is set, it is appended to the list. This is useful to define a user-defined appearance.

 

Example - Modify a list-box to set column offsets

procedure division. ...   modify screen-1-lb-1          display-columns ( 1 21 29 )          . ...