Re: Externally Described files & RPG IV

[Pete Hall <peteh@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:16 07/31/98 +0000, Tim McCarthy wrote:
>
>At 08:28 AM 7/31/98 -0400, you wrote:
>THis would be even more useful if you had the option of specifying unique
>storage per record format. Although each file currently defined to an RPG
>program has a unique buffer, program storage is allocated by field name so
>you can't process two records with the same field names at the same time
>(without some footwork anyway). A nice feature in using C with externally
>defined files is the ability to address fields with the same field name
>individually by using the record name as a prefix.

It's more a side effect than a function, but you can do something similar 
through a combination of program described files and externally described data 
structures that specify a prefix. The only difference in the code is that you 
cannot use a KLIST. You must concatenate key fields into a single alpha 
variable (or data structure) for use as a key. You can then do things like 
comparing A_CUSTNO with B_CUSTNO and EVAL A_RECORD = B_RECORD. With a little 
imagination, you can even functionally duplicate a typed array with a based 
record. AND you aren't forced to use indicators 01-99 any more. Heck, with 
prototyped functions, binding language, service programs, all that's needed yet 
is macros and compile time condition blocks. You'll be able to confuse yourself 
almost as well with RPG as you can with C <lpszWeakAttemptAtHumor>.


Pete Hall
peteh@inwave.com 
http://www.inwave.com/~peteh/

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