Global formatting

Both field width and, in the case of numerical data, the number of decimal places may be controlled on a global basis.  The GAMS defaults for these items follow:

The general syntax for specifying these formatting items is

Localfileidentifier.symbol=value;

The value for the width specified is the exact number of characters that will be employed.  However a specification of 0 causes the field width to be the minimum size that will fully display the item.

Special actions are taken when the item does not fit.  If an item containing text contains more characters than the field width, the text will be printed starting from the left with characters beyond the width omitted.  For items containing numeric values, the decimal portion of a number is rounded or scientific notation will be used to fit the number within the given field and if that wont work a set of *'s is entered.

The way of overriding each of these defaults involves use of an attribute of the localfileidentifier put file name.  The attributes that can be used are the symbols listed in the last column of the table above.  Use of each will be discussed below.