Re: Variable Length Fields In V3R7 ILE RPG

Thanks Bill,

*VARCHAR opened the doors.

For those intetested we found when compiling ILE RPG to V3R7M0,
CVTOPT(*VARCHAR) isn't H-Spec supported.  It has to be supplied on the
create command's "Type conversion option" parameter.

Also, you have to immitate a variable length field by defining the first two
bytes of a string as an integer with length 5 an zero decimal positions.
Here's an example.  VarLenFld is a variable length defined field in a
physical file.

D TransactionDS   DS
D Transaction                32577
D  TranLen                       5I 0 Overlay(Transaction:1)
D TransactionOut             32575    Overlay(Transaction:3)
.
.
.
C                   Z-Add     32575         TranLen
C                   MoveL     TransactionDS VarLenFld
C                   Write     RECORD


----- Original Message -----
From: Reger, Bill <breger@levitz.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 10:36 AM
Subject: RE: Variable Length Fields In V3R7 ILE RPG


> This is from the ILE RPG Reference manual:
>
> 2.3.11 Converting Database Variable-Length Fields
>
> The ILE RPG compiler can internally define variable-length character or
> graphic fields from an externally described file or data structure as
> fixed-length character fields. Although converting variable-length
character
> and graphic fields to fixed-length format is not necessary, CVTOPT
> remains in the language to support programs written before variable-length
> fields were supported.
>
> You can convert variable-length fields by specifying *VARCHAR (for
> variable-length character fields) or *VARGRAPHIC (for variable-length
> graphic fields) on the CVTOPT control specification keyword or command
> parameter. When *VARCHAR or *VARGRAPHIC is not specified, or
> *NOVARCHAR or *NOVARGRAPHIC is specified, variable-length fields are not
> converted to fixed-length character and can be used in your ILE
> RPG program as variable-length.
>
> The following conditions apply when *VARCHAR or *VARGRAPHIC is specified:
>
>    If a variable-length field is extracted from an externally described
> file or an externally described data structure, it is declared in an ILE
RPG
>
>     program as a fixed-length character field.
>
>    For single-byte character fields, the length of the declared ILE RPG
> field is the length of the DDS field plus 2 bytes.
>
>    For DBCS-graphic data fields, the length of the declared ILE RPG field
> is twice the length of the DDS field plus 2 bytes.
>
>    The two extra bytes in the ILE RPG field contain a unsigned integer
> number which represents the current length of the variable-length field.
>     Figure 95 shows the ILE RPG field length of variable-length fields.
>
>    For variable-length graphic fields defined as fixed-length character
> fields, the length is double the number of graphic characters.
>
> William K. Reger
> Senior Project Manager
> Levitz Furniture Corporation
> Phone:  (561) 994-5114
> E-mail:  breger@levitz.com <mailto:breger@levitz.com>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gary Monnier [mailto:GaryMon@powertechgroup.com]
> Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 12:37 PM
> To: Midrange List Server
> Subject: Variable Length Fields In V3R7 ILE RPG
>
> We have a customer running OS/400 V3R7 and wishs to utilize
> variable length
> fields in a data file.  Anyone know if, and how, they can
> use ILE RPG to set
> variable length fields from ILE RPG?
>
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