isCOBOL Evolve : User Interface : Working With UI and Controls : Creating a control : Inquiring a control
Inquiring a control
When the program needs to retrieve the value of a property, it must use the INQUIRE Statement
In order to make programs easier, the property VALUE is automatically updated, as long as it has been declared in Screen Section. Therefore, it is never needed to inquire the VALUE property, except during the event handling, because events may be asynchronous and the variable associated with the VALUE property may not be updated at the time the program needs it.
The syntax of the INQUIRE Statement is:
Format 1
INQUIRE {control-item } [ ( {index-1} ... ) ]
{CONTROL AT location}
 
  { { property-name          } [IN] { [MULTIPLE] property-value [LENGTH {IN} length-1 ] } } ...
    { PROPERTY property-type }      { [TABLE   ]                        {= }                              }
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           } 
        {WINDOW [generic-handle] }
  { property-name [ IN ] property-value }
  {               [ =  ]                } ...
  [END-INQUIRE]
property-name can be one of the following:
• COLUMN
• HINT
• LINE
• LINES
• POP-UP MENU
• SCREEN COLUMN
• SCREEN LINE
• SIZE
• TITLE
• VISIBLE
The program can retrieve values of several properties with the same INQUIRE command:
INQUIRE MyEntryField ENABLED IN EnabledVar, VALUE IN ValueVar.
produces the same effect as the following distinct statements:
INQUIRE MyEntryField ENABLED IN EnabledVar.
INQUIRE MyEntryField VALUE IN ValueVar.