The value of the INITIAL schema field (which is always CHARACTER). If the INITIAL schema field has the Unknown value (?), the value of the INITIAL attribute is the null string ("").

Data type: CHARACTER

Access: Read-only

Applies to: Buffer-field object handle

INITIAL renders its dates and numeric values in LOCAL format, subject to the DATE-FORMAT and NUMERIC-FORMAT attributes of the SESSION system handle.

See also

DEFAULT-STRING attribute, DEFAULT-VALUE attribute