Suppressing print data

For line data and XML data, you can tell PSF not to print certain fields in the print records you send to the printer. You do this by using either selective field formatting or print suppression.

You can format selective fields by using a page definition to format only the fields in the print record that you want to print. Fields that you omit from the format descriptions in the page definition will not be sent to the printer by PSF.

To suppress print data, use a page definition to format the fields and label the fields as eligible for suppression. Then use a form definition to specify which of the labeled fields are not to be printed. The suppressed fields are not sent to the printer. Use this method of suppression when you are printing multiple copies of a page and you want the fields printed on some copies but suppressed on other copies.

To create page definitions and form definitions that format fields and suppress data, use an AFP program such as IBM® Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA). For more information, see Page Printer Formatting Aid: User’s Guide.

Examples:

This example uses a user-created page definition to format only the first 80 bytes of a 120-byte record.

//AFPUSERA JOB ...
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USERA
//OUT1  OUTPUT PAGEDEF=FORMAT
//PRINT DD SYSOUT=A,OUTPUT=(*.OUT1)
   /*

In this example, a user-created page definition formats all the fields to be printed and labels a Salary field for suppression. The user-created form definition prints two copies of each page, suppressing the Salary field on the first copy.
```
//AFPUSERA JOB ...
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USERA
//OUT1  OUTPUT PAGEDEF=SUPSAL,FORMDEF=SUPSAL
//PRINT DD SYSOUT=A,OUTPUT=(*.OUT1)
   /*
```