Re: variable length field - how to rewrite a record

Thanks so much for the debug assist.

I should have given you more of the code.

In hindsight, it is obvious that I was moving text to the GROUP data name A0403X-MEMO-TEXT (instead of same "-DATA").

So the first alpha character was dropping into the LENGTH field, which caused it to be a meaningless value.

move AMTEXT to A0403X-MEMO-TEXT <-----------should end with "-DATA".
add 81 to A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH



06 A0403X-MEMO-TEXT. (Variable length field)

49 A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH PIC S9(4) COMP-4.
49 A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-DATA PIC X(1619).


Thanks!


-----Original Message-----
From: cobol400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cobol400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bruce Vining
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 9:48 AM
To: COBOL Programming on the iSeries/AS400
Subject: Re: [COBOL400-L] variable length field - how to rewrite a record

As your Add statement is correct I have to question the assertion that
A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH is 0. Prior to running the Add statement I have to
suspect that A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH is -5996. This could be caused by a
variety of things -- for instance if the storage associated with
A0403X-MEMO-TEXT was also defined as say PIC X(1), then previously setting
the PIC X(1) field to Y (a rather suspicious value) would cause a negative
value when viewing A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH. Specifically a value of 'Ym'
(where the 'm' could be coming from most anywhere and defined as most
anything) would cause a "starting" value of -5996 for
A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH.
A similar situation, though clearly not the one you encountered, would be
for A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH (after the Add statement) to be 6529. This
would be the case where the storage associated with A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH
was set to blanks prior to the Add (which under the covers would be 16448
interpreted as the 4-digit value 6448 + 81).

An eval A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH:x immediately prior to the Add statement
running would be helpful, along with a more complete view of the copybook
and prior processing.

Bruce Vining

On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 1:17 PM, Stone, Joel <Joel.Stone@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

OK

But why is 0 + 81 = -5915 ???


-----Original Message-----
From: cobol400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
cobol400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mark S Waterbury
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 12:57 PM
To: COBOL Programming on the iSeries/AS400
Subject: Re: [COBOL400-L] variable length field - how to rewrite a record

Joel:

COMP-4 means binary. PIC S9(4) is equivalent to PIC S9999 ... that's
four decimal digits ... that fits into two bytes in binary ... aka. a
halfword.

HTH,

Mark S. Waterbury

> On 7/20/2012 1:11 PM, Stone, Joel wrote:

From COPY statement:

06 A0403X-MEMO-TEXT.
(Variable length field)
49 A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH
PIC S9(4) COMP-4.
49 A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-DATA
PIC X(1619).
A0403X MEMO TEXT




In debug, the length field (comp-4) is zero

I have the following line incrementing the length:

add 81 to A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH

in debug after this add stmt executes, the value is shown as

Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 49 A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH
Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : SIGNED BINARY
Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2
' -5915'




How do I properly increment the length of the field?? Where is -5915

coming from?? I think it should show 81, correct?

Should the 81 be coded as x'00000081' or x'00000051' or something else???

I tried

add X'00000051' to A0403X-MEMO-TEXT-LENGTH

but get compiler error

234 MSGID: LBL1447 SEVERITY: 30 SEQNBR: 022100
Message . . . . : Statement incomplete; last valid item found
before 'X"00000051"'. Statement ignored.
234 MSGID: LBL0018 SEVERITY: 00 SEQNBR: 022100
Message . . . . : Input ignored starting with 'X"00000051"'.



Thanks



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