Re: Unmatch variable

Jon,

Would passing by value help the situation or would there still be a
problem because the variables (elementary items in COBOL) are defined
differently?

Thanks,
Michael Quigley
AS/400 Programming Section
The Way International
www.TheWay.org

cobol400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 05/06/2008 01:00:04 PM:

----- Message from Jon Paris <Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on Tue, 6
May 2008 10:37:58 -0400 -----

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You still seem to be missing the point. The program does not
"receive the data". Only a pointer to the data. The _only_
information the called program receives about the parameter is where
it starts in memory. Period - end of story. Nothing about its size
or data type or anything else.

Consequently interpretation of the data is _entirely_ based on the
definition in the called program.

Note that all processing of the parameter within the called program,
actually happens in the memory "owned" by the calling program - that
is why it is critical to match the definitions in order to avoid
corrupting memory.

Again this is not a COBOL thing or an AS/400 thing - it occurs with
any language that passes parameters by reference which includes (for
example) the C language.

Jon Paris

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