Suppressing Fields: SUP-PRINT or NOPRINT

You can create reports that do not display the values or titles of fields, but only use those fields to produce specific effects. FOCUS provides options to suppress the printing of field values: NOPRINT and SUP-PRINT.

Reference: Usage Notes for Suppressing Fields

If you put a NOPRINT or SUP-PRINT phrase in a computed field, you must then repeat AND COMPUTE before the next computed field.
If you use the NOPRINT option with a BY field and create a HOLD file, the BY field is excluded from the file. For example, a request that includes the phrase
```
BY DEPARTMENT NOPRINT
```
results in a HOLD file that does not contain the DEPARTMENT field.

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Example: Suppressing Fields

To print a list of employee names in alphabetical order, if you simply use the request

TABLE FILE EMPLOYEE
PRINT LAST_NAME
END

you get a report that lists the last names of employees in the order they were entered into the data source:

LAST_NAME 
--------- 
STEVENS 
SMITH 
JONES 
SMITH 
BANNING 
IRVING 
ROMANS 
MCCOY 
BLACKWOOD 
MCKNIGHT 
GREENSPAN 
CROSS

To print the last names in alphabetical order, use NOPRINT in conjunction with a BY phrase:

TABLE FILE EMPLOYEE
PRINT LAST_NAME
BY LAST_NAME NOPRINT
END

which produces the desired result:

LAST_NAME 
--------- 
BANNING 
BLACKWOOD 
CROSS 
GREENSPAN 
IRVING 
JONES 
MCCOY 
MCKNIGHT 
ROMANS 
SMITH 
SMITH 
STEVENS

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Example: Suppressing a Sort Field

Consider the following example, where the report is sorted, but the field that determines the sort order is not displayed:

TABLE FILE SALES
PRINT UNIT_SOLD AND DELIVER_AMT
BY CITY BY PROD_CODE BY RETAIL_PRICE
ON RETAIL_PRICE SUP-PRINT
END

The output is:

CITY             PROD_CODE  UNIT_SOLD  DELIVER_AMT
----             ---------  ---------  -----------
NEW YORK         B10               30           30
                 B17               20           40
                 B20               15           30
                 C17               12           10
                 D12               20           30
                 E1                30           25
                 E3                35           25
NEWARK           B10               13           30
                 B12               29           30
STAMFORD         B10               60           80
                 B12               40           20
                 B17               29           30
                 C13               25           30
                 C7                45           50
                 D12               27           40
                 E2                80          100
                 E3                70           80
UNIONDALE        B20               25           40
                 C7                40           40

Also, consider the following example which does not display a COUNTRY column:

TABLE FILE CAR
SUM SALES BY COUNTRY
BY CAR
ON COUNTRY SUB-TOTAL SUP-PRINT PAGE-BREAK
END

The first part of the output is:

PAGE     1              
                        
                        
CAR                SALES
---                -----
JAGUAR             12000
JENSEN                 0
TRIUMPH                0
                        
*TOTAL ENGLAND          
                   12000
PAGE     2              
                        
                        
CAR                SALES
---                -----
PEUGEOT                0
                        
*TOTAL FRANCE           
                       0
PAGE     3              
                        
                        
CAR                SALES
---                -----
ALFA ROMEO         30200
MASERATI               0
                        
*TOTAL ITALY            
                   30200