Re: Clear entire field vs substring

I believe that a fixed-length field is cleared before being set with EVAL - it's not whether it's varying, it's the operation you're using.

OK, my understanding of some of this that might be more than anyone wanted to know! This is for EVAL, not EVALR, though things ought to be similar.

1. Assign fixed to varying --> result is left-justified and length set to size of fixed variable - trailing blanks in fixed value are retained
2. Assign varying to varying --> result is left-justified and length set to length (not size) of varying variable (or value, as in result of %trim[r])
3. Assign varying to fixed --> result is left-justified and length is the size of the fixed variable - really no length to set - variable is padded with blanks

This assumes value being assigned is shorter or equal in length to the target variable.

OK, enough - that's how I use this stuff all the time - again, I'd better be right, eh?

Vern

On 5/21/2012 2:17 PM, Rory Hewitt wrote:

Albert,

Is workfield a varying field? If so, then you don't need to do either - you
shoudl simply be able to do this:

workfield = %trimr(NewData);

If workfield is not a varying field, then it really depends on whether/how
you're keeping track of the lngth of NewData - if you're not holding it
elsewhere, then you should clear the whole field.

Rory

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 12:09 PM, Albert York<albertyork@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have a work field that is 2000 bytes (to allow for the longest possible
string value). The length of the data being moved to it varies and can be
quite short. I have to clear the work field before I move the data.

Which is better:

workfield = *blanks


len = %len(%trimr(Newdata));
%substr(workfield:1:len) = *blanks;

Thanks,

Albert
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