Re: Passing Datastructure Array

Hi Bryce,

<snip>
Although it really doesn't seem to intuitive (for me at least) that you would need to add the Dim(20) to the
prototype. I would think that Dim(20) changes the *structure* a bit to give it depth, but I guess I'm asking too much.
</snip>

Got to admit it isn't too intuitive. Especially when the likeDS keyword is used to make a "copy" of an existing structure.

This usually hits me when I'm creating prototypes for external consumption. I want the developer writing the consumer code to not worry about how to create the variables to pass so I create a template DS array for them to copy. The caller can simply make their variables likeDS the DS array on the prototype. Perfect! Except the developer writing the consumer procedure always falls over on the DIM(xx) part because it is not part of the structure definition as seen by likeDS.

Maybe, as we have the TEMPLATE keyword in 6.1 we could add an optional parm to it - TEMPLATE(*ELEM) which meant that any copy of a template array created using LIKE or LIKEDS would honour the DIM on the original template array.

Just a thought.

Cheers
Larry Ducie



_________________________________________________________________
What goes online, stays online Check the daily blob for the latest on what's happening around the web
http://windowslive.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx