Re: a strange RPG program

On 03/23/99 03:13:52 PM Ron Dubson  wrote:

>Based on entry parms, it updates a member of a source physical file, 
>apparently without calls to any CL programs. The source physical file 
>contains exactly one member which is the source specification for the 
>FMTDTA command (sort utility). The purpose is to enable dynamic selection 
>and sorting of a particular database file.
>
>How can an RPG program do this? I thought they could update only database 
>files. Could it be using some API?

As far as RPG is concerned, a source PF is pretty much the same as a 
regular database file with 3 predefined fields: SRCSEQ, SRCDAT and SRCDTA. 
By default, an AS400 program opens the first member of any PF.  Since 
there's only one member, the RPG program opens it and updates it just fine. 
 Try it yourself: write a quickie RPG program that uses QRPGSRC externally 
defined and print out the 3 fields. 

Buck Calabro
Billing Concepts Inc (formerly CommSoft), Albany, NY
mailto:mcalabro@commsoft.net
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