ASK C-3





Copyright (C) 1994-95 Conetic Software Systems, Inc. All names, products, and services mentioned are the trademarks of their respective organizations.



NAME


ask - ask parameter from terminal

SYNOPSIS


#include 

char *ask (prompt, datatype, ans, anslen)
char *prompt;
int datatype;
char *ans;
int anslen;

DESCRIPTION


The prompt parameter is written to standard output, and one line
is read from standard input. If the response is valid for the
datatype specified, the response is written as a character string
into the location pointed to by the ans parameter. A pointer to
the response is also returned by ask.

If the response is longer than anslen-1 characters, or is not
valid for the data type specified, an error message is written to
standard output and the prompt is reissued. The error message
displays the original input and what data type it should be, for
example:

     03/32/81 not a valid date

The valid datatypes are named in the include file and are:

     BOOLEAN_TYPE        MONEY_TYPE 
     CHAR_TYPE           REAL_TYPE 
     DATE_TYPE           STRING_TYPE 
     INT_TYPE            TIME_TYPE