isCOBOL Evolve : Language Reference : Procedure Division Statements : INQUIRE
INQUIRE
Format 1
INQUIRE {Control-Item       } [ ( {Index-1} ... ) ]
        {CONTROL AT Location}
 
  { { Property-Name          } [IN] { [MULTIPLE] Property-Value [ LENGTH {IN} Length-1 ] } } ...
    { PROPERTY Property-Type }      { [TABLE   ]                         {= }            } 
  
  { CLASS [IN] Control-Class}
  { STATUS [IN] Control-Status}
Location is defined as follows:
{ Screen-Loc [CELL  ]
             [CELLS ]
             [PIXEL ]
             [PIXELS]
 
 
  LINE NUMBER Line-Num [CELL  ]
                       [CELLS ]
                       [PIXEL ]
                       [PIXELS]
 
  {COLUMN  } NUMBER Col-Num [CELL  ]
  {COL     }                [CELLS ]
  {POSITION}                [PIXEL ]
  {POS     }                [PIXELS]
 
  }
Format 2
INQUIRE { window-handle           } { Property-Name          [IN] Property-Value }
         { WINDOW [generic-handle] } { STATUS                 [IN] Control-Status }
Syntax rules
1. CELL and CELLS, PIXEL and PIXELS and . COLUMN, COL, POSITION and POS are synonymous.
2. Control-item is defined as USAGE HANDLE and identifies the control being inquired.
3. Index-1 is numeric and defined as numeric, with parenthesis as when referencing a table index.
4. The AT, LINE, COLUMN, CLINE, and CCOL phrases must be used if the CONTROL phrase is specified.
5. Screen-loc is an integer data item or literal.
6. Line-num, col-num, are numeric data items or literals.
7. Property-name is the name of a property specific to the type of control being inquired. If control-item refers to a generic handle, or if the CONTROL option is specified, then property-name cannot be used. Use the PROPERTY phrase instead. Refer to Graphical Control List for the list of properties supported by a specific control type.
8. Property-type is a numeric literal or data item.
9. Property-value is a data item.
10. Length-1 is a numeric data item. The LENGTH phrase may be specified only if the value or property-value immediately preceding it is an alphanumeric data item.
11. Control-Class is an alphanumeric data item.
12. Control-Status is a numeric data item.
General rules
1. The INQUIRE statement retrieves some or all of a control's current properties, and stores them as data items. Control-item identifies the control to inquire. If the CONTROL phrase is used instead, the runtime inquires the control located at the screen position specified by the AT, LINE, and COLUMN phrases in the current window. A list of controls is maintained for each window. This list is kept in the order that controls are created.
2. If control-item does not refer to a valid control, or if the runtime cannot locate a control at the specified screen location, the INQUIRE statement returns the “Invalid Handle” error or has no effect if iscobol.ignore_invalid_handle is set to true.
3. If index-1 is specified, the properties described below are modified to match the value of index-1. This happens before the inquiry executes. The Control properties updated are shown below:
Control Type
Properties Affected
List Box
QUERY-INDEX
Grid
Y, X
Tree View
ITEM
Each occurrence of index-1 modifies one property.
 
4. The LENGTH option, length-1 returns the exact number of characters placed by the control in value or property-value.
5. The LINE NUMBER IN and COLUMN NUMBER IN phrases return the location of the control in line-num and col-num respectively. The SIZE IN and LINES IN phrases return the dimensions of the control in width and height respectively. Use LINE and SIZE dimension values twhen creating the CONTROL in order to have their updated values returned with INQUIRY.
6. The CLASS clause returns the control type. Possible values, defined in iscontrols.def, are:
78  ctl-label                                    value 1.
78  ctl-entry-field                              value 2.
78  ctl-push-button                              value 3.
78  ctl-check-box                                value 4.
78  ctl-radio-button                             value 5.
78  ctl-scroll-bar                               value 6.
78  ctl-list-box                                 value 7.
78  ctl-combo-box                                value 8.
78  ctl-frame                                    value 9.
78  ctl-tab                                      value 10.
78  ctl-bar                                      value 11.
78  ctl-grid                                     value 12.
78  ctl-bitmap                                   value 13.
78  ctl-tree-view                                value 14.
78  ctl-web-browser                              value 15.
78  ctl-status-bar                               value 17.
78  ctl-date-entry                               value 18.
78  ctl-slider                                   value 21.
78  ctl-java-bean                                value 22.
7. The STATUS clause returns a numeric value that describes the status of the control or the window. Possible values are:
STATUS
Meaning
0
the handle is valid, the control or window is currently on video
1
the handle is not valid
2
the control or window isn't yet created or has been destroyed by destroy verb
3
the control or window has been destroyed internally by the framework (like it happens with temporary controls, for example) and not by a destroy verb
Examples
Format 1 - Get the value from a entry-field to a variable
inquire scr-cust-code value ws-cust-code
Format 1 - Get the size of a label to a variable
inquire scr-cust-label size ws-lbl-size
Format 2 - Get the size in columns and lines of a graphical window
inquire mywin-handle size ws-win-size
                     lines ws-win-lines