Progress
Programming
Handbook


Fill-ins

A fill-in is a rectangular field that contains a character representation of a value of any data type, with or without extents. The user enters new characters to update the value. The number of characters the user can enter, and hence the size of the fill-in, is usually governed by the format you specify. You can also specify an external size for the field or you can let Progress determine the size based on the format. The default formats are:

Because a fill-in is the default representation for fields, variables, and expressions, you usually do not have to specify it. However, you can use the following syntax to explicitly view a value as a fill-in:

SYNTAX
VIEW-AS FILL-IN [ NATIVE ] [ size-phrase ] 
  [ TOOLTIP tooltip ] 

Progress supports two subtypes of fill-ins: default Progress fill-ins and native graphical fill-ins. For full backwards compatibility, default Progress fill-ins provide support for the CHOOSE FIELD statement. Native graphical fill-ins look and behave like other fill-ins within the Windows environment.

When a non–NATIVE (Progress 4GL) fill–in is disabled, the border disappears but the text does not gray out. When a NATIVE fill–in is disabled, the text grays out.

If you want a native fill-in, you can specify VIEW–AS FILL–IN NATIVE for the field or set the widget’s SUBTYPE attribute to “NATIVE” (the default is “PROGRESS”). You cannot change this attribute after the fill-in is realized.


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