Re: Using DEP parameter when defining a command. -- MIDRANGE-L


On 16/12/2006, at 10:07 AM, Alan Campin wrote:

I want to be able to check a parameter to make sure that the value is

not 'XVSRCLIST EMUTIL' and for the life of me I can't get DEP to workon

this.

My parm is defined as:

PARM       KWD(OUTFILE) TYPE(QUAL1) ALWVAR(*YES) PROMPT('Output file')


QUAL1:      QUAL       TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(SRCLIST)
            QUAL       TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(QTEMP) SPCVAL((*LIBL))
PROMPT('Library')

I am trying this but it always gives me an error no matter what Ienter.



DEP        CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *EQ 'XVSRCLIST EMUTIL    '))
NBRTRUE(*GE 1)

First issue is that you're specifying *EQ which means OUTFILE mustcontain the value you are testing. However, in this case, specifying*NE won't fix the problem.

Second (and more important) issue is that you can't use DEP to properlytest QUAL or ELEM values. For reasons known only to the CL developersDEP only compares against the first QUAL or ELEM statement in a group.Thus your DEP will always fail because the first QUAL will nevercontain the value against which you are comparing.


You can test this by:

DEP CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *NE 'XVSRCLIST')) /* Neverallow the value */

or

DEP CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *EQ 'XVSRCLIST')) /* Requirethe specified value */

These comparisons will work as expected but as soon as you increase thelength of the compare value to include additional non-blank charactersthe comparison will not operate as you expect.

        DEP        CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *NE 'XVSRCLIST E'))

I have some vague recollection of seeing this behaviour documentedsomewhere--maybe in an error message--but I cannot recall the location.

One possibility would be to use the REL keyword on each QUAL statementas follows:QUAL1: QUAL TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(SRCLIST) REL(*NEXVSRCLIST)

                    QUAL       TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(QTEMP) SPCVAL((*LIBL)) +
                                                        PROMPT('Library') 
REL(*NE EMUTIL)

However, this will reject any use of XVSRCLIST and EMUTIL--not justthe combination which is what you appear to require. I think your onlysolution is to use a Validity Checking Program to perform thecomparison and reject the command if it fails the test.


Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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