In addition to the syntax described here (“advanced COLDEF syntax”), two other syntax schemes are supported: Traditional Syntax and Simple Multi-Column Syntax. See also the discssion on File Mode Coldef Extensions.

The advanced syntax allows for the specification ofd column attributes as well as widths. See the Advanced Syntax Example after these notes. To use the advanced syntax, you must set bit XTF_COLDFX in the flags parameter, in which the of case coldef is interpreted using the following syntax:

cpos~ cwidth~ ctitle~ cformat {~option1 = value1{ ~option2 = value2...} ~~cpos~ cwidth...~~

This syntax specification consists of a series of column definitions, one per column, delimited by a pair of tildes (~~). Each column definition begins with four mandatory parameters (cpos, cwidth, ctitle and cformat) followed by zero or more optional parameters using the form (optionN=valueN). This is admittedly cryptic, but has the virtues of being flexible, easily extensible, compact, and easy to map.

Parameter	Description
cpos, cwidth	Define the starting position and width of the column.
ctitle	Sets title.
cformat	Specifies formatting and sorting of column contents.
<more>	Advanced Coldef Options.