Re: optional parm in CLLE

On 24-Jan-2014 05:29 -0800, Alan Cassidy wrote:

I haven't seen a mention of the use of MONMSG to check for these
parameters.
I never considered this before, but I just tested this (at least on
7.1 here), and this method gets an Ugh, but If you really HAD to...

I just did this:
CHGVAR &VALUE3 &PARAMETER3
MONMSG MCH3601 EXEC(DO)
SNDPGMMSG MSG( 'Did not receive 3 parameters') TOPGMQ(*EXT)
ENDDO
ENDPGM

Worked at least.

Reminds me of a joke" How many programmers does it take to replace a light bulb? None. It works for me.

In the scenario, what /works/ for you might not hold true for anyone else. First, because just like discussed in my prior reply, the details of the means to compile and invoke are unstated, and because...

The documentation is clear enough... and that is, that results are *unpredictable* with regard to the lack of specification of parameters for a CLLE; i.e. optional parameters. There are provisions for omitting parameters using the special value *OMIT. I can compose a CALLPRC which will not pass a third argument, such that in the above scenario, the called CLLE will not receive the MCH3601; i.e. the CLLE will incorrectly have inferred it did "receive 3 parameters" when in fact it did not.

Besides, wherein that monitor for the MCH3601 is a valid test for an omitted parameter [such as in a CPP for a *CMD, or an *OMIT argument], using the CL pointer support instead, you can just ask if the address of the &PARAMETER3 is *NULL, saving the trouble of a monitor and the exception.

http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/201304/msg00703.html
http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l/200806/msg00387.html
<http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/rbam6/passp.htm>
"... When calling an ILE program or procedure, the operating system does not check the number of parameters that are passed on the call. In addition, the space where the operating system stores the parameters is not reinitialized between program or procedure calls. Calling a program or procedure that expects n parameters with n-1 parameters makes the system use whatever is in the parameter space to access the nth parameter. The results of this action are very unpredictable. This also applies to programs or procedures written in other ILE languages that call CL programs or procedures or are called by CL programs or procedures. ..."