The CURSOR IS clause specifies where in a field the cursor is positioned at the start of the ACCEPT operation, and returns where the cursor is left at the end of an ACCEPT operation. If you do not specify a CURSOR IS clause in your program, the cursor is positioned at the start of the first field for every ACCEPT operation.
The CURSOR IS clause is defined in the Special-Names paragraph, as follows:
special-names.
cursor is cursor-position.
where cursor-position is a field defined in the Working-Storage Section of your program as follows:
01 cursor-position.
03 cursor-row pic 99.
03 cursor-column pic 99.
or:
01 cursor-position.
03 cursor-row pic 999.
03 cursor-column pic 999.
where:
Whenever an ACCEPT statement is executed, the enhanced ACCEPT/DISPLAY syntax attempts to initially position the cursor at the position specified in cursor-position. If the position specified is invalid (that is, either cursor-row or cursor-column does not contain a valid value), the cursor is positioned at the start of the first field on the screen.
If the value in cursor-position is valid, the enhanced ACCEPT/DISPLAY syntax searches through all of the fields to see if the requested cursor position lies within one of them. If it does, the cursor is positioned at the required point. If it does not, then the cursor is positioned at the start of the first field. Therefore, if you want the cursor to be positioned at the start of the first field, set both cursor-row and cursor-column to 1.
Where the defined position is on a suppressed character or insertion symbol in a numeric edited field, the cursor moves to the first available character to the right. If there is no further data item, the cursor returns to the first data item on the screen.
When the ACCEPT is terminated, if the value in cursor-position at the start of the ACCEPT was valid, the position of the cursor when the terminating key is pressed is returned in cursor-position. This might not be the same position as the current cursor position, since the enhanced ACCEPT/DISPLAY syntax usually moves the cursor to the end of the field upon termination of an ACCEPT operation to allow relative positioned ACCEPT statements to start at the correct point on the screen.
If the value in cursor-position at the start of the ACCEPT operation was invalid, then, when the ACCEPT operation is terminated, the contents of cursor-position are unchanged.
One example of the use of this facility is that in menu-type operations, the operator need only move the cursor to a position on the screen corresponding to the selection required. The operator's choice can be determined by the returned value of cursor-position.