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Formfeed Command

Obsolete

This command is obsolete. It is valid only in character-mode DataFlex or BasicReport objects. More modern reporting options have their own functionality for this. See the documentation of your reporting tool.

Purpose

To output a pagefeed character to the current output device.

Syntax

formfeed

What It Does

When the pagefeed Predefined Variable is unused or set to zero, the formfeed command outputs a formfeed character to the printer or to the device or file named in the last direct_output command. In the printer, this will cause the paper to be advanced the number of lines defined in the printer as the height of a page.

  • If a value of 1 has been assigned to pagefeed, a formfeed command will cause output to pause until a key (any key) has been pressed. This is especially suitable for screen output.

  • If the value of pagefeed is between 2 and 32,767, a formfeed command will output carriage return characters until the value of the Predefined Variable linecount equals pagefeed.

move 66 to pagefeed
formfeed

This example would output carriage returns until the number of lines (both blank and those containing data) output since the last formfeed command was equal to 66.

Notes

In report programs, you may program the beginning of a new output page manually by combining formfeed with the Predefined Procedure newpage.

formfeed
gosub newpage

These commands would unconditionally start a new page wherever they are placed in a program.

To insert a blank page between printouts, use formfeed either prior to or in the header procedure_section.