Re: You know, I'm pretty sure it's zoned...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Klement" <klemscot@klements.com>
To: <rpg400-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 5:06 PM
Subject: Re: You know, I'm pretty sure it's zoned...


> No...  my understanding of your rant was that a field defined in DDS like
> this:
>     A            FLD001        10S 0B  1  3
>
> should be mapped to a zoned decimal field in RPG.  (i.e. "10S 0" in RPG)
> because the programmers "explicit intent" was to define it that way.
>
> So, what I'm asking is, if you instead defined it as:
>      A            FLD001        10Y 0B  1  3
> or
>      A            FLD001        10N 0B  1  3

So, the programmer is explicitly declaring the field numeric and because the
DDS is for a dspf, it's zoned.
If I define a field for a physical file and spec P, it's explicitly packed.
If I leave it to default, then the field is still going to have to be
defined somehow to the record format. If you have a problem with the word
explicit, I'm sorry.

> What should the compiler assume that the programmer's "explicit intent"
> is?

When the compiler gets the field, it has a type. That type is explicit to
the program.

> This is not the same as an edit code -- at least to me.   The same
> field with an edit code would look like this:
>      A            FLD001        10Y 0B  1  3EDTCDE(M)
>
> The problem is... in DSPF DDS "10S 0" means "10,0 with a keying option of
S"
> all numbers are zoned decimal, because packed & integer are not
> human-readable.

well, with all this free-form code and no columns, I just wanted to be sure
that the Y was in column 35.... teehee...
didn't you just answer your own question?

===========================================================
R. Bruce Hoffman, Jr.
 -- IBM Certified Specialist - iSeries Administrator
 -- IBM Certified Specialist - RPG IV Developer

"Suppose you were an idiot...
  And suppose you were a member of Congress...
  But I repeat myself."
    - Mark Twain