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Hey Rory,

Yeah, that's essentially what I've done. I just felt like ranting, and also opening it up in case I was taking the long way of going about coding my procedure.

Thanks for the response.

-Kurt

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rory Hewitt
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 11:03 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Re: BIFs requiring constants = frustrating

Kurt,

Until IBM allows variables in these BIF's, you could just write a procedure
which does basic numeric->character conversion for you, so in your in-line
code, you simply have this:

rtnAmount = charValue( Amount : w_DecPos : editCode : '*CURSYM' );

I know, I know, it's not ideal (and it sounds like you may already do (or
want to do) this anyway, but at least you have a single line in your in-line
code, which can eventually be replaced with the variable-allowed-BIF...

Rory

On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 8:35 AM, Kurt Anderson
<kurt.anderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

%kds - number of keys to use has to be a constant
%dec - length and decimal positions have to be constants
%editc - edit code has to be constant

I'm working with amounts that I'm writing to XML. They can have differing
decimal precision based on the client processed. I thought, wonderful, I
can create a procedure, pass in some parameters, and simply insert those
parms into a statement to format my return value. If only it were so easy.
But why isn't it? What is the purpose of making BIF parms requiring
constant values? Where is the flexibility in that? I suppose it may be
easier on the RPG developers, but is it better for the language?

Info about my example. Amounts are already rounded to the needed
precision. Also, we go out to 6 decimals, I cut the example down to only
going out to two decimals.

So in my example, instead of being able to code:
rtnAmount = %trim( %editC( %dec( Amount: LEN_Amount: w_DecPos ): EditCode:
*CurSym);

I have to code:

20983 Select;

20983 When w_DecPos = 0;
20983 Amt0Dec = Amount;

20983 Select;
20983 When EditCode = 'A';
20983 rtnAmount = %trim( %editc( Amt0Dec: 'A': *CURSYM ) );
20983 When EditCode = 'B';
20983 rtnAmount = %trim( %editc( Amt0Dec: 'B': *CURSYM ) );
20983 EndSl;

20983 When w_DecPos = 1;
20983 Amt1Dec = Amount;

20983 Select;
20983 When EditCode = 'A';
20983 rtnAmount = %trim( %editc( Amt1Dec: 'A': *CURSYM ) );
20983 When EditCode = 'B';
20983 rtnAmount = %trim( %editc( Amt1Dec: 'B': *CURSYM ) );
20983 EndSl;

20983 When w_DecPos = 2;
20983 Amt2Dec = Amount;

20983 Select;
20983 When EditCode = 'A';
20983 rtnAmount = %trim( %editc( Amt2Dec: 'A': *CURSYM ) );
20983 When EditCode = 'B';
20983 rtnAmount = %trim( %editc( Amt2Dec: 'B': *CURSYM ) );
20983 EndSl;
20983 EndSl;

If I'm missing something and there's an easier way to do what I'm doing,
please let me know.

Thanks,

Kurt Anderson
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
CustomCall Data Systems
Madison, WI


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