A field picture is a literal string constructed of picture control characters and protected characters. The length of the picture string controls the length of the data field. Picture control characters control what characters the user can enter at each position in the field. Protected characters are characters that are displayed in the field but cannot be changed by the user. You should take care to follow the guidelines for defining picture strings for each field type.
Designer: The Designer checks the picture string you enter to make sure it is consistent with the field type.
Code: If you are writing forms in code and using the development libraries, fld_def() checks the picture string that you specify in the call to make sure it is consistent with the field type. The picture string can be specified as a literal string, or it can be constructed using a call to the picture defintion function pic_def(). See Chapter 6, "Writing Forms in Code," for more information on using pic_def().
Using Picture Control Characters
Using Protected Characters in Pictures
Restrictions on Pictures for Full Editing
Restrictions on Pictures for Field Adjustment
Entering International Characters and Symbols
