Re: LVLCHK(*NO)

Hi Dave

I'll jump in where angels fear to tread, perhaps.

Your program knows nothing about the new fields - it uses a buffer that contains only the other fields it already knows about.

My understanding is, the data in the new fields is not brought into memory in any meaningful way - your program won't change them even by accident.

Now does the new program use those fields? Probably not. I think there will be no ill effects.

Now although I generally support checking the format level, as we use SQL more and more, that becomes less used - SQL functions know nothing about format level checks.

Anyhow, I'm happy to be found incorrect. Learning happens every day, I hope.

Cheers
Vern

On 1/29/2021 7:11 AM, Dave wrote:

Hi,



I was rather surprised to discover that in my current shop, it is a regular
practice to use files in this way, thus avoiding (sometimes) the need to
recompile some of the programs sources where they are declared.

I’ve just modified such a file, placing a couple of new fields at the end
of the DDS. The program seems to function normally. But what happens
exactly when the program reads the file ? Surely, the memory pointing to
the new data somewhere is modified. Where is it and how can one be sure
there can be no ill effects ?



Thanks !