Re: HereDoc

Mark,
It seems you could add this if you wrote your own precompiler that would
handle this. It would run through your code before you push it to the
compiler and it would look for the <<<DOC marks and do the necessary
character escapes. Maybe you could do a <<<DOCSQL specifically for SQL
escaping rules and then <<<DOCRPG for rpgle escaping rules, etc.

Just a thought.


Thanks
Bryce Martin
Programmer/Analyst I
570-546-4777



"Mark Murphy/STAR BASE Consulting Inc." <mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
01/20/2011 09:46 AM
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RPG programming on the IBM i / System i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


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Subject
HereDoc






Some time ago I learned PHP, and was introduced to a concept called
HereDoc. Essentially a way to insert a string inline. Didn't really see
the use of it, and never really thought about it much until now. I have a

piece of code where it would be highly useful for improving the
readability of my program. Unfortunately The use is in an RPG program,
and the feature does not exist there.

Anyway here is what I was thinking. I am using dynamic SQL in a
particular program (so that I can use set schema to direct unqualified
references to the environment of my choice). Some of the SQL commands are

quite complex, and I have to double quotes in my string literals. the
whole thing degenerates into a bunch of extra quotes and continuation
marks that would not be necessary with a HereDoc.

Consider the following (very simple, but serves to make the point):

updateStmt =
'Update MCPSRV Set SESCLS=''O'', ' +
' semdat = Date_As_Cymd(Current_Date), ' +
' semtim = time_As_Hms(Current_Time), seuser = user, ' +
' sempgm = ''SQL'' ' +
'Where SEICD9=''V2020Z''';

With a HereDoc I could write something like:

updateStmt = <<<DOC
Update MCPSRV Set SESCLS='O',
semdat = Date_As_Cymd(Current_Date),
semtim = time_As_Hms(Current_Time), seuser = user,
sempgm = 'SQL'
Where SEICD9='V2020Z'
<<<DOC

Even with a simple example the lack of superfluous quotes and continuation

marks makes the second far more readable than the first.

Any thoughts?

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx