MSGCON (Message Constant) keyword for display files

You use this field-level keyword to indicate that the text for constant fields is contained in a message description.

If the message description does not exist at DDS compilation time, the file will not be created. If you change the message description, you need to create the file again if you want the display file to contain the updated message.

The format of the keyword is:

MSGCON(length message-ID [library-name/]message-file-name)

The length parameter specifies the maximum length of the message description. The length can be from 1 to 132 bytes. If the message description is less than the length specified, the remaining bytes are padded with blanks (hex 40). If the message description is longer than the length specified, the message description is truncated to the specified length and a warning message appears.

The message-ID parameter specifies the message description that contains the text to use as the value of the constant field.

The message-file-name parameter identifies the message file that contains the message description. The library-name parameter is optional.

The MSGCON keyword must be explicitly specified for the field. The MSGCON keyword cannot be used to initialize a named field.

The DFT and MSGCON keywords are functionally equivalent. If you specify the DFT and MSGCON keywords for the same field, the MSGCON keyword is ignored and the file is not created.

The MSGCON keyword cannot be specified with any of the following keywords:

DATE
DFT
EDTCDE
EDTWRD
TIME

Option indicators are not valid for changing the value of the message line, but they are valid for conditioning the presence or absence of the message on the display.

Example

The following example shows how to specify the MSGCON keyword.

|...+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7....+....8
00010A          R RECORD1
00020A                                  2  1MSGCON(10 MSG0001 MESSAGE/MSGF)
     A

MSG0001 in message file MSGF in library MESSAGES contains the message text.