Xerox 6180N Using LCDS Print Description Language - Page 201

Using logical processing - If the operator is NE, LT, GT, LE, or GE, the system tests the variable data against only the first value in the TABLE CONSTANT statement. Performance considerations with the CRITERIA VALUE parameter CRITERIA VALUE affects system performance in relation to the number of characters per page involved. This is a function of the number of tests performed, the number of character columns in each test, and the number of lines in which the criteria is evaluated. The following actions can help you reduce the impact of CRITERIA VALUE processing on your printer throughput speed when printing your applications: • Restrict the range of lines tested via the LINENUM parameter. This avoids time spent with unnecessary testing of lines that are not supposed to meet the criteria in any case. For example, in a forms application with an address field at the top and mailing information at the bottom, you might use the LINENUM command to prevent tests on the data associated with the address label and mailing info. • Restrict the columns tested in the CRITERIA VALUE parameter to the shortest possible length, to avoid testing blank space. However, you should be sure that you are providing for all possible values. For example, you should not limit the column size to space enough for only $999,999 if there is a chance that $1,000,000 might occur on a rare occasion. • For applications in which either CRITERIA VALUE or CRITERIA CONSTANT can be used, choose CRITERIA CONSTANT, because it has less performance impact. • When coding numeric values into TABLE CONSTANTs, for maximum performance, specify the shortest possible numeric string. Omit superfluous leading zeros, trailing zeros, white space, and "thousands" separators. For example, use '50000' instead of '050,000.00.' Because the former expresses the same value as the latter but with only half as many characters, it takes much less time to process. CRITERIA VALUE parameter syntax example criid: CRITERIA VALUE=(offset, length, GT, tabid), LINENUM=(init, count); Using LCDS Print Description Language 3-21