## 11.3.1 Forms for Control Edit Descriptors

A control edit descriptor takes one of the following forms:

  c
  cn
  nc
  c
  Is one of the following format codes: T, TL, TR, X, S, SP, SS, BN, BZ, P, :, /, \, $, and Q.
  n
  Is a number of character positions. It must be a positive integer literal constant; or variable format expression; no kind parameter can be specified. It cannot be a named constant.

  The range of n is 1 through 2147483647 (2**31-1) on Alpha and ia64 processors; 1 through 32767 (2**15-1) on ia32 processors. Actual useful ranges may be constrained by record sizes (RECL) and the file system.

Rules and Behavior

In general, control edit descriptors are nonrepeatable. The only exception is the slash (/) edit descriptor, which can be preceded by a repeat specification.

The control edit descriptors have the following specific forms:

Positional: | Tn, TLn, TRn, and nX
Sign: | S, SP, and SS
Blank interpretation: | BN and BZ
Scale factor: | kP
Miscellaneous: | :, /, \, $, and Q

The P edit descriptor is an exception to the general control edit descriptor syntax. It is preceded by a scale factor, rather than a character position specifier.

Control edit descriptors can be grouped in parentheses and preceded by a group repeat specification.

For More Information:

- On format specifications, in general, see Section 11.1.
- On group repeat specifications, see Section 11.5.

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