USING

The USING operator specifies a character-string format for a number, MONEY, or DATE operand, and returns the formatted value.

format-string is a quoted string that specifies how to format the returned character string from the number or time expression.

With a number or MONEY operand, you can use the USING operator to align decimal points or currency symbols, to right- or left-justify numbers, to put negative numbers in parentheses, and to perform other formatting tasks. USING can also convert a DATE operand to a variety of formats.

USING is typically used in DISPLAY or PRINT statements, but you can also use it with LET to assign the formatted value to a character variable. If a value is too large for the field, 4GL fills it with asterisks ( * ) to indicate an overflow.