RE: LEFT Error (Or PICNIC Error...) REFORMATTED

> From: Larry Bolhuis
> 
> Thank you all.  The ',' -vs- ':' argument was very strong but the
> biggest problem was that I was trying to use the string function LEFT
in
> ILE RPG.  However there is no such function apparently.

And if there were such a built-in function, it would start with a %, as
all such built-in functions do.  That minimum level of familiarity with
the language helps when you use it.


> I don't program
> much outside of CL these days so when I was in the RSE editor I simply
> hit F1 and searched for LEFT.  Sure 'nuf there it was so I keyed in
the
> syntax and attempted a compile.

Why would you assume that something you happened to look up in the help
would apply to RPG?  Far better to use the standard context-assist key
combination of Ctrl-space.


> I ASSUMED that the help system would
> know I was editing RPG and therefore wouldn't tell me about stuff from
a
> foreign language.

Why would you assume that?  The Help text is there for the entire tool,
as opposed to the context-assist feature, which would have given you
only those things which made sense for the current editor.


> Of course I was incorrect. Interestingly the help text
> doesn't indicate which language the statement applies to at all!!

Unless you go to the table of contents link, which tells you that you
are in the REXX book.  I suppose a title on the top of every page to
tell you which language you are in might help, but as I said, you were
better off using content assist.


> Oh
> well the appropriate statement turned out to be this one in Free Form:
> 
> EVAL      @IPTRIM = %SUBST(IPAddress:1:%LEN(%TRIMR(@IFC)));

I don't much understand this.  Since I don't know what @IFC contains and
I don't know what IPAddress contains, it's hard to know what this does.
But in your original issue, eval IPT2 = %subst(IPT1:1:LN) would have
worked just fine.

Joe