Using Functions in RECAP Calculations

You may provide your own calculation routines in RECAP rows to perform special-purpose calculations, a useful feature when these calculations are mathematically complex or require extensive look-up tables.

User-written functions are coded as subroutines in any language that supports a call process, such as FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, and BAL. See the Using Functions manual for information about creating your own functions.

Syntax: How to Call a Function in a RECAP Command

RECAP calcname[(s,e,i)][/format]=function  
(input1,...,inputn,'format2');

where:

calcname: Is the name you assign to the calculated value.
(s,e,i): Specify a start (s), end (e), and increment (i) value for the column where you want the value displayed. If omitted, the value appears in all columns.
format: The format for the calculation is optional. The default is the format of the column. If the calculation consists of only the subroutine, make sure that the format of the subroutine output value (format2) agrees with the calculation format. If the calculation format is larger than the column width, the value displays in that column as asterisks.
function: Is the name of the function, up to eight characters long. It must be different from any row label and cannot contain any of the following special characters: = -, / ().
input1, inputn: Are the input arguments for the call to the function. They may include numeric constants, alphanumeric literals, row and column references ® notation, E notation, or labels), or names of other RECAP calculations.
Make sure that the values being passed to the function agree in number and type with the arguments as coded in the function.
format2: Is the format of the return value, which must be enclosed in single quotation marks.

Top of page

Example: Calling a Function in a RECAP Command

Suppose you have a function named INVEST in your private collection of functions (INVEST is not available in the supplied library), and it calculates an amount on the basis of cash on hand, total assets, and the current date. In order to create a report that prints an account of company assets and calculates how much money the company has available to invest, you must create a report request that invokes the INVEST function.

The current date is obtained from the &YMD system variable. The NOPRINT option beside it prevents the date from appearing in the report. The date is solely used as input for the next RECAP statement.

The request is:

TABLE FILE LEDGER
HEADING CENTER
"ASSETS AND MONEY AVAILABLE FOR INVESTMENT </2"
SUM AMOUNT ACROSS HIGHEST YEAR
IF YEAR EQ 1985 OR 1986
FOR ACCOUNT
1010 AS 'CASH'                                 LABEL CASH      OVER
1020 AS 'ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE'                  LABEL ACR       OVER
1030 AS 'INTEREST RECEIVABLE'                  LABEL ACI       OVER
1100 AS 'FUEL INVENTORY'                       LABEL FUEL      OVER
1200 AS 'MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES'               LABEL MAT       OVER
BAR                                                            OVER
RECAP TOTCAS = CASH+ACR+ACI+FUEL+MAT; AS 'TOTAL ASSETS'        OVER
BAR                                                            OVER
RECAP THISDATE/A8 = &YMD; NOPRINT                              OVER 
RECAP INVAIL = INVEST(CASH,TOTCAS,THISDATE,'D12.2'); AS 
          'AVAIL. FOR INVESTMENT'                              OVER 
BAR AS '='
END

The output is shown in the following image.

ASSETS AND MONEY AVAILABLE FOR INVESTMENT
                        YEAR
                          1986    1985
----------------------------------------
CASH                     2,100   1,684
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE        875     619
INTEREST RECEIVABLE      4,026   3,360
FUEL INVENTORY           6,250   5,295
MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES   9,076   7,754
                        ------  ------
TOTAL ASSETS            22,327  18,712
                        ------  ------
AVAIL. FOR INVESTMENT    3,481   2,994
                        ======  ======