Prerequisites
You are in the Basic List series of screens and have created a new query or want to change an existing query.
Use
On the Basic List Line Structure screen, you specify the lines in which you want to display the fields and the order in which you want the fields to appear.
The following basic list contains all the fields on one line.
This basic list is also known as a single-line basic list.
There are three variants of the Basic List Line Structure screen. The lower part of the screen for each of these variants contains different information:
If you make changes in the upper part of the screen, these changes are reflected at once in the lower part of the screen (that is, as soon as you press ENTER). You use the Query
You use the following functions to switch between these three screen variants: Settings
® With Explanations , Settings ® Without Explanations , Query ® Line Structure .All the screens that are used to define basic lists, statistics, and ranked lists have these three screen variants. You use the same methods to navigate between the variants.
You use the Setting ® Settings option to determine which of the three variants is displayed first when you call a screen. The screen containing the line structure is displayed first by default.
Procedure
Proceed as follows to determine the structure of the lines:
Since our example uses a single-line basic list, specify 1 for each field.
The highest-ranking sort criterion must have the smallest sequence number, the second highest-ranking criterion must have a larger sequence number, and so on. Ideally, you should start with the number 1 and assign increasingly greater numbers without leaving any gaps. The highest-ranking sort criterion is usually therefore given the number 1. This is not however a requirement.
Additional Functions
There are two display options that help to improve the layout of basic lists:
The basic list is surrounded by a frame. When you define the line width, remember that each line requires two extra characters for the frame. When you leave the Frame Width input field blank, the system only frames the part of the basic list that is actually used. Otherwise, in this field you can determine the width of the frame as anything between the required width and the width of the list. If the width you specify is too big or too small, the system corrects your entry automatically to fit.
With this option, a vertical bar is displayed after each field. It ensures that indented lines (for example, for sub-totals) are framed and that no lines are left open.
With multiple-line basic lists, different lines usually have different structures, meaning that no straight vertical lines are created when the Column separation with | option is selected. You can deselect the Columns with | option on the List Line Output Options screen. Further information can be found under
The section
Interactive Functions for Displaying Lists describes how you switch between a complete display and a compressed display of multiple-line basic lists. The Compressed display option allows you to decide whether the first list that is displayed when the query is started is complete or compressed.You do not use this option to specify that you want the compressed display option to be available. This is determined by the query itself.
See also:
Options for Line Structures: Sum and Count