Re: Using DEP parameter when defining a command.

[Simon Coulter <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 16/12/2006, at 10:07 AM, Alan Campin wrote:

> I want to be able to check a parameter to make sure that the value is
> not 'XVSRCLIST EMUTIL' and for the life of me I can't get DEP to work 
> on
> this.
>
> My parm is defined as:
>
> PARM       KWD(OUTFILE) TYPE(QUAL1) ALWVAR(*YES) PROMPT('Output file')
>
>
> QUAL1:      QUAL       TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(SRCLIST)
>             QUAL       TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(QTEMP) SPCVAL((*LIBL))
> PROMPT('Library')
>
> I am trying this but it always gives me an error no matter what I 
> enter.
>
>
> DEP        CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *EQ 'XVSRCLIST EMUTIL    '))
> NBRTRUE(*GE 1)

First issue is that you're specifying *EQ which means OUTFILE must 
contain the value you are testing. However, in this case, specifying 
*NE won't fix the problem.

Second (and more important) issue is that you can't use DEP to properly 
test QUAL or ELEM values. For reasons known only to the CL developers 
DEP only compares against the first QUAL or ELEM statement in a group. 
Thus your DEP will always fail because the first QUAL will never 
contain the value against which you are comparing.

You can test this by:
	DEP        CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *NE 'XVSRCLIST'))  /* Never 
allow the value */
or
	DEP        CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *EQ 'XVSRCLIST'))  /* Require 
the specified value */

These comparisons will work as expected but as soon as you increase the 
length of the compare value to include additional non-blank characters 
the comparison will not operate as you expect.
        DEP        CTL(*ALWAYS) PARM((&OUTFILE *NE 'XVSRCLIST E')) 

I have some vague recollection of seeing this behaviour documented 
somewhere--maybe in an error message--but I cannot recall the location.

One possibility would be to use the REL keyword on each QUAL statement 
as follows:
	QUAL1:      QUAL       TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(SRCLIST) REL(*NE 
XVSRCLIST)
                    QUAL       TYPE(*NAME) LEN(10) DFT(QTEMP) SPCVAL((*LIBL)) +
                                                        PROMPT('Library') 
REL(*NE EMUTIL)

However, this will reject any use of XVSRCLIST and EMUTIL--not just 
the combination which is what you appear to require. I think your only 
solution is to use a Validity Checking Program to perform the 
comparison and reject the command if it fails the test.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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