HELP Clause

 

HELP clause is an optional clause that specifies the number of the help message that is associated with the DISPLAY ARRAY statement.

 

 

Element

Description

Integer Expression

A 4GL expression that returns a positive integer greater than 0 and less than 32,767.

 

The message defined in this clause appears in the help message window when the user presses the Help key while the DISPLAY ARRAY statement is in effect, that is until the Accept key is not pressed. The Help key may be defined in the OPTIONS statement in the body of the program, by default CONTROL-W is the help key.

 

DISPLAY ARRAY my_arr TO scr_arr.*

HELP 12

 

The integer expression identifies the message within the help file. The help file which contains the help message must be specified in the HELP FILE clause of the OPTIONS statement that precedes the DISPLAY ARRAY statement. If 4GL cannot open the specified help file, if the indicated number is greater than 32,767, or if the number is absent from the help file an error message will appear. The qmsg command can be used in the command line environment to create a compiled version of the help file.

 

A non-compiled help file is a message file with the extension .msg (help_file.msg). Only a compiled message file can be referenced as a help file. Notice that a compiled help file has another extention, e.g. .erm (help_file.erm).