Mask Characters (Magic xpa 3.x)

Any character that appears in a picture string that is not a functional or positional directive, is a mask character.

Mask characters are inserted into the actual parameter value during display. For example, the string $##### defines a 5-digit numeric integer variable that is always displayed with a dollar sign preceding it.

The position of mask characters is critical. Specifying the dollar sign at the rightmost position of the picture #####$ causes the dollar sign to be displayed in the rightmost position of the parameter.

Mask characters are not stored in the data. They do not influence the size of the stored variable or its internal representation.

Mask characters may appear several times in a picture. For a shortcut method of specifying consecutive mask characters, see Count Value.

Mask characters can be upper or lower case. However, if you use upper case characters as a mask character, you need to use the Escape character.