Verifying Field Boundaries

When you perform a verify operation, Monarch Classic scans the entire report to ensure that all fields are painted in the correct location and of  the correct length and data type. If any non-blank characters are found immediately adjacent to a field boundary, Monarch Classic will alert you that the field may be too short or defined at the wrong location. Then you can decide whether the field is correctly defined or needs to be redefined.

The Report Verify window displays the status of a verify operation. If the verify operation detects a field boundary error, the Report Verify window allows you to correct the error and then continue with the verify operation.

If the verify operation detects a right field boundary error, the verify operation is halted and the Report Verify window displays a message that describes the boundary error, e.g., "A non-blank character is on the right side of field eg_". The line in the report where the field boundary error occurs is highlighted. The Report Verify window also displays Adjust Right and Adjust Left buttons. Pressing Adjust Right adjusts the problematic field by one character on its right side. Pressing Adjust Left moves the field by one character on its left side.

When using the Adjust Right or Adjust Left buttons, the results of expanding or shrinking are immediately reflected in the Template Editor. The Adjust Right or Adjust Left buttons are grayed as necessary so that a field cannot be shrunk to zero width or expanded to the point where it overlaps another field from the same template.

Steps:

1. Select Run Report Verify on the Report Design Ribbon.

If Monarch Classic finds a field with characters adjacent to its boundaries, it will stop and highlight the field. You must then decide if the field should be redefined to include the adjacent characters. Field boundary problems may be corrected immediately. You can also ignore the issue by selecting Ignore.

3. Click the Adjust Right or Adjust Left buttons on the Report Verify view to increase or decrease the highlighted field. Each click of the Adjust Right or Adjust Left button increases or decreases the field by one space. The Report window immediately displays the changes to the field.

4. When you have finished editing the field, click the Continue button to see if any additional fields need editing.

5. Click Stop to terminate the verify operation.

 

Note:

The verify operation also detects data type failures. A data type failure can occur when, for example, a numeric field cannot be converted to a valid number or when a date field cannot be converted to a valid date. For example, if you defined a field called "Ship Date" and assigned a field type of "Date/Time" to it, if the verify operation finds a Ship Date field in the report that contained a number rather than a date, it would display the following message: "Text for field Ship Date cannot be converted into a valid number". To correct a data type failure, close the Verify window, and then make the necessary edits to the field (i.e., specify a different field type via the Field Properties dialog).