8-3
The remainder of this chapter will explain each step in creating program
statements. They are described in the order that they appear when
programming the TriCoder.
• Program Name
The first prompt the TriCoder displays when creating a program is the
PROGRAM NAME prompt. The PROGRAM NAME entered at this
prompt will be used to identify the program in the DATA COLLECTION
menu. The PROGRAM NAME can consist of alphanumeric data and can be
up to 20 characters.
The PROGRAM NAME prompt has another function besides simply naming
the program. When collecting data, programs usually start with statement #1,
or if data has already been collected, it starts at the statement number where
the user left off. You can force the TriCoder to ALWAYS start at a particular
statement number whether starting a new data file or resuming collection in
an existing one. This is done using the first 3 characters in the PROGRAM
NAME prompt. The first character must be ~, followed by the two digit
statement number you want to start with. You can then follow with an actual
program name if you want to. This feature can cause partial data records
since resuming data collection after some data has been collected may start at
a statement number other than where you left off. Because of possible partial
records, the host program that processes this data needs to handle the partial
records in a special way or ignore them completely. The following example
shows a program named INVENTORY that always starts at statement #4:
PROGRAM NAME?
~04INVENTORY
This example shows a program named RECEIVING:
PROGRAM NAME?
RECEIVING
This program starts with statement #1 if the data file is empty. If you are
resuming a previous data collection and you still have data present (you didn’t
upload and delete your data file), the program will resume at the statement
number following the statement at which the user last entered data.
• Statement Entry Types
The next prompt in the program process is the ENTRY TYPE prompt. This
prompt determines what type of data is entered for this statement. This is
the most important prompt as it deter-mines exactly what happens at this
step in the program. After entering a name at the PROGRAM NAME
prompt, you see:
ENTRY TYPE
01
_
