RE: Flat file, same field, different positions

Bob wrote:

>It looks like you're two data structures are identical in 
>layout, never mind the field names. 

They aren't alike; each one is unique.  

>Not sure what you're getting at... 

I have a hundred structures or so.  Each one contains several fields that
hold the same sort of information, like phone number.  The problem is that
the phone number field occurs in different places for different structures.
If I want to use a single variable name in the calculations, like PHONE, I
am forced to name each individual structure some unique variant like
PHONE360, PHONE625, PHONE001 and so on, and then have a giant SELECT to move
the individual structure PHONEnnn into PHONE.

The bit about packed numbers is that I would ordinarily use I specs, but the
record type is a packed number, and I can't use that in the record ID
columns.

>There is no "MOVE CORRESPONDING" in RPG IV like we 
>have in COBOL. So if the subfield locations of your 
>data structures is different, you're SOL; even if
>you use QUALIFIED.

That's sort of how I saw it, but I figured a few more eyes on the problem
might see something I hadn't.

Ultimately, I decided to go with I specs and run a pre-process to unpack the
record identifier.  I hate to touch those records twice, but ultimately it
may prove to be the best solution from a maintenance perspective.
  --buck