Controlling the Output Size and Log Pages with the OPTIONS Statement

Although it is not really related to the topic of data input, the OPTIONS statement is introduced now so that you can modify the size of your output and log pages, if necessary. For example, when printing your output on a 132-character printer, you might want to modify your output so that each line can be up to 120 characters long. When working with a printer with a smaller platen width, however, you might want to produce output that is less than 120 characters in length. The OPTIONS statement allows you to do this.

This is the general form of the OPTIONS statement that allows you to control the maximum number of characters and lines that appear on each page in output and log files:

OPTIONS   LINESIZE=x   PAGESIZE=y ;

With the preceding general form, x = the maximum number of characters that you wish to appear on each line, and y = the maximum number of lines that you wish to appear on each page.

For example, to request output and log files in which each line can be up to 80 characters long and each page can contain up to 60 lines, use the following OPTIONS statement as the first line of your program:

OPTIONS   LINESIZE=80    PAGESIZE=60;

To request output and log files with lines that are up to 120 characters long, use the following:

OPTIONS   LINESIZE=120   PAGESIZE=60;