SAS Component Language Dictionary

EVENT

Reports whether a pending event has occurred

Category:

Keys

Syntax
Details
Example
See Also

Syntax

rc=EVENT();

rc

contains the return code for the operation:

1	a pending event has occurred.
0	a pending event has not occurred.

Type: Numeric

Details

EVENT is useful when you want your application to continue a task while it waits for user input. For example, your application can read data from an external source and display the results. When a user presses an appropriate key, you can stop processing and handle the request.

An event can be a mouse button press or a keyboard key press. An event can also be generated by a frame display or redisplay. Once a pending event has occurred, the EVENT function returns 1 until the frame has been redisplayed.

A pending event can also be a system event that the user did not directly cause. For example, the autosave feature, which is designed to save work in SAS at a specified interval, generates an event that the EVENT function detects. To avoid accidentally triggering the EVENT function, the autosave feature can be disabled through either the SAS Preferences dialog box or the WAUTOSAVE OFF command. You can find the autosave preference by selecting Tools Options Preferences... and the Edit tab.

Operating Environment Information: z/OS

EVENT does not work under z/OS. On this system you should use the attention handler exit that is provided in SCL. Refer to the discussion of the BREAK option for CONTROL. [cautionend]

Example

Display the date and time until a user presses either ENTER or one of the function keys. The variable DATETIME is a numeric text control on a frame entry and has the format DATETIME17.2. When a user presses ENTER or a function key, the program exits the loop and returns control to the application. In this example, when a user issues a RUN command, the loop resumes.

INIT:
   control allcmds;
return;
MAIN:
   if _status_ in ('C','E') then return;
   if (word(1,'U')='RUN') then
      do while(event()=0);
         datetime.text=datetime();
         refresh;
      end;
return;

TERM:
return;