SHOW

The SHOW command shows a single value of an expression. Normally, you would use SHOW to show the value of a single-cell variable or to show a message. SHOW is useful in programs when you want to generate an error-like message without creating an error condition. The output from SHOW is sent to the current outfile.

Syntax

SHOW expression [NONL]

Arguments

expression: The value you want to show. When expression is dimensioned, only the first value of the expression is shown, based on the current status of its dimensions. When you are showing a text literal, you must enclose the value in single quotes.
NONL: Indicates that a new line sequence should not be appended to the end of the value. By default, SHOW appends a new line sequence.

Notes

Concatenating Output Lines

The NONL argument to SHOW is useful in programs. Using this argument you can concatenate several values into a single line of output. To accomplish this, include one or more SHOW commands with the NONL argument, followed by a single SHOW statement without the NONL argument. The values from all the SHOW commands are concatenated into a single output value, in the order specified. Depending on the length of the line, this value might actually produce more than one line of output.

Generating Error Messages

SHOW can be used as an alternative to SIGNAL when you want to generate an error message from a program. Unlike SIGNAL, SHOW produces a message without signaling an error condition and thus halting execution of the program. Your error message may be most useful when you send it to a debugging file. When you use a DBGOUTFILE statement to direct messages to a debugging file, the output from SHOW is sent to the debugging file as well as to your current outfile.

Showing Values of Composites

When SHOW is used with a named or unnamed composite, an NA value is shown when the composite does not have a value that corresponds to the first values in the status for its base dimensions. For example, the statement

SHOW SPARSE <market product>

will produce an NA value when the combination of the current values of market and product does not exist in the composite.

Breaking Lines of Text

To break a text expression into two or more lines of output text, insert newline delimiters (\n) at the appropriate places in the text.

Using SHOW With NTEXT Values

The SHOW command converts NTEXT values to the character set of the outfile. When an NTEXT value cannot be represented in the outfile character set, the character is not displayed correctly.

Examples

Example 21-28 Showing the Value of an Option

This example uses SHOW to report the current value of the DECIMALS option. The OLAP DML statement

SHOW DECIMALS

produces the following output.

Example 21-29 Showing a Data Value

When you use SHOW to report the value of a dimensioned variable, only the first value of the variable, based on the current status of its dimensions, is shown. The OLAP DML statement

SHOW JOINCHARS('Actual = ' actual)

produces the following output.

Actual = 533,362,88

Example 21-30 Creating Error Messages Using SHOW

When you want to produce a warning message without branching to an error label, then you can use a SHOW statement.

select:
LIMIT month TO nummonths
IF STATLEN(month) GT 9
   THEN DO
     SHOW 'You can select no more than 9 months.'
     GOTO finish
     DOEND
REPORT DOWN district W 6 units
finish:
POP month
RETURN

Example 21-31 Showing the Values of a Valueset

Suppose an analytic workspace contains a valueset called monthset that has the values Jan95, May95, and Dec95. You can use SHOW to list the values in that valueset.

SHOW monthset
Jan95
May95
Dec95