Re: %trimr and *loval

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Why does %Trimr put *blanks on the end?

It doesn't.   If the variable is fixed-length, EVAL needs to set the
entire contents of the variable -- so it sets the remainder to blanks.
But, it's EVAL, not %trimr() that does this.

If you're using a fixed-length variable, you need to put SOMETHING in
those spaces, right?   RPG has always used blanks.

> Or, better yet, is there a better way to make sure that the field ends
> in trailing nulls?

You could do this:

     D MyVar           s             30a
     D MyString        s             30a   inz('test')
     D Nulls           s             30A   inz(*ALLx'00')
      /free
        MyVar = %trimr(myString) + Nulls;

But, I'm at a bit of a loss... why do you want to fill it with nulls?


> (As I finished typing up this last sentence I banged off a Sametime to
> the developer suggesting a variable length field instead.  I think it is
> a new file that he will be using for CPYTOSTMF or CPYTOIMPF for FTP EDI
> purposes thus he "should" be open minded...

If he's writing it to a stream file, filling it with nulls isn't any
better than filling it with blanks...   the write() API will write as
many chars as your length is set to, it does not pay attention to nulls.

Instead, he should just code:

           write(fd: %addr(MyString): %len(%trimr(MyString));

and skip the whole idea of translating blanks to nulls.   Or better yet,
use a varying field:

     D MyString        s             30a   varying inz('test')
      /free
           write(fd: %addr(MyString)+2: %len(MyString));

At the very least, this will run much faster than the business with
%trim will.   Especially if you ever change MyString to be a larger
variable.