Re: passing an RPG variable length field to a CL as fixed length

Hi Jeff -

On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 13:59:35 -0500, "Jeff Crosby"
<jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Because it's a varying length field, I don't think you do this:

C EVAL TEXTMsg160 = '(PCTAlerts) ' +
C %trim(TEXTMsg)

you simply do this:

C EVAL TEXTMsg160 = '(PCTAlerts) ' +
C TEXTMsg

No %trim is necessary as it's handled automajically.

That's not really true. If the TEXTMsg has leading blanks %trim will
remove them (as would %triml). Not using either would put the leading
blanks into TEXTMsg160.

There's nothing to prevent a varying length field from having leading
blanks.

There's nothing to prevent a varying length from having trailing
blanks either. eval TEXTMsg = 'A ' will give the field a length of
5 which includes the four trailing blanks.

In this particular circumstance, because TEXTMSG160 is fixed length,
and because nothing follows TEXTMsg in the eval, it's irrelevant
whether or not TEXTMsg has any trailing blanks and whether or not
anything is done to remove them.

Ken
Opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the views
of my employer or anyone in their right mind.