Re: Storing Numeric Values in the Database

On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 9:24 PM, Morgan, Paul <Paul.Morgan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I wish to code in RPG V using external database tables (not files).
 No table formats embedded in the compiled code.  Data definition
reinterpreted at run time.  If you can do it with embedded SQL why
not also with the base RPG IV language?  Maybe some set based
RPG external table opcodes.  Maybe a simple change to a file spec
from external file to external table might be all the code change
required.  Just one last recompile to RPG Nirvana.

I think the base RPG language isn't well-suited for that level of
dynamicism. The compiler needs to account for all the names and their
types (including their size). If you wrote a program that used a
name, and that name either disappeared or changed its type after you
compiled it, then what was the point of compiling it? This is the
very thing that static typing proponents point to as an advantage of
precompiled programs.

The fact that you can embed SQL *is* the mechanism by which RPG allows
dynamic data definition. Frankly, I don't think it's worth mangling
RPG into more of a Frankenstein's monster than it already is.

If you are after full dynamic typing, then you are probably better off
with another language. One that is not statically typed. SQL itself,
for example. If you prefer a dynamic procedural/object-oriented
language, there is iSeries Python.

John