RE: JDBC columns blank

Which languages were you thinking of where myVar = '' is a bad practice?

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Justin Taylor <JUSTIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: -----
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Justin Taylor <JUSTIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 11/28/2016 09:02AM
Subject: RE: JDBC columns blank


I always thought of
*blank = ''
Not
*blank = *all' '


myVar = '' is fine for RPG, but that's a bad practice in some languages (memory issues or something like that).




-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Klement [mailto:midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2016 4:31 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: JDBC columns blank

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. "Blank" does not mean that the string is empty, it means that it is filled with blanks (space characters).

I suppose if you've spent many years working with fixed-length strings (that cannot be empty, because they have a fixed length) you might start thinking of blanks as being the same as nothing -- but its definitely time to 'unlearn' that if you're working in other languages!! (Heck, its even time to 'unlearn' that if you're working in only RPG -- past time, in fact.)

IMHO, the way you did it (myVar = '') is the best way, everyone will understand it no matter what environment they're used to.