RE: Initialize array in D-Spec

In your example the entries "overlay(#ds)" and "overlay(#ds:*next)" are
superfluous.  *Next is what the compiler does anyway when you simply list a
series of fields without from/to positioning.

It may also be worth pointing out that no field name needs to be used in
order to have an initial value, although they are needed in your example as
you have defined the field length via LIKE.  Had you just defined a length
(i.e. 4) then the field names can be omitted.

If you don't want the array to be the first entry in a DS, but rather just
be part of it, you can use a group field to achieve the same thing.

So your example can be written as:

d #ds       ds
d   v1                        like(#array) inz('Val1')
d   v2                        like(#array) inz('Val2')
d   v3                        like(#array) inz('Val3')
d #array    4                 dim(3) overlay(#ds)

Or like this if part of DS:

d #ds       ds
d   anyoldfield               like(myfield)
d   group
d     v1                      like(#array) inz('Val1')
d                             overlay(group)
d     v2                      like(#array) inz('Val2')
d                             overlay(group: *Next)
d     v3                      like(#array) inz('Val3')
d                             overlay(group: *Next)
d #array    4                 dim(3) overlay(group)


Just a question - why make your field names so hard to read by placing a #
in front of all of them?

Jon Paris
Partner400

www.Partner400.com
www.RPGWorld.com