Re: Using Pointers

     Billy,
     
     IMO, pointers would probably cause you more problems in the future 
     than they would be worth. Since the fields are not contiguous, any 
     changes to the record format would cause your pointer offsets to be 
     invalid. I think you'd be better off defining a DS of all your fields 
     and overlay that DS with an array. That way, you're referencing the 
     elements by name rather than position. 
     
     hth
     eric.delong@pmsi-services.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Using Pointers 
Author:  <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com> at INET_WACO
Date:    11/19/99 6:13 PM


We have a file with 9 record types that we get from a client.  
I have an external description for each record type, but I have
the file internally defined and each of the external definitions 
brought in as an external data structure, so when a record is 
read I just move the whole record to the appropriate data 
structure.
     
I am now having to add 4 arrays to one of the record types because 
the client is adding some information, now the array elements are 
not contiguous and since a field cannot be in more than one data 
structure I would like to be able to use pointers to the fields
in the data structure to create or make up the fields for the run 
time arrays.
     
I am currently loading the arrays via the input specs, but I would 
like to be able to just point to the data that is already in the 
record type data structure.
     
     
TIA,
     
Billy
     
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