Re: "extract" command enhancement -- RPG400-L

I'm new to this mail list, but I'd like to throw in my 2 cents worth:

I agree with Jim that a more generic name like %subfld is preferable.
Simply because there are no specific scenarios in the Toronto Lab doesn't
mean programmers out there can't come up with a few. Sounds a little like
the people who couldn't imagine a program needing more than 64KB of memory.
Besides Jim's, how about being able to extract the library or object name
from a string like "lib/file" or "filename.lib"? With a little stretch you
could also use it like BASIC's VAL function - extract the numeric value from
a string, or either the integer or decimal portion thereof.

I'd also like to mention that I find newsgroups a lot easier to read for
these kinds of discussions.

Regards,
 Peter Dow

----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Langston <jlangston@conexfreight.com>
To: <RPG400-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 1999 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: "extract" command enhancement


> Well, how about a time field and retrieving Hours, Minutes, Seconds?
> It would be useful there.  And I vote for %subfld also (sub field).
>
> Regards,
>
> Jim Langston
>
> boldt@ca.ibm.com wrote:
>
> > Jon wrote:
> > > >> The name we're currently leaning towards is "%subdtz".
> > > >> As in, the sub-part of a date, time, or timestamp value.
> > >
> > >Not wild about that one Hans - for one thing I don't think I'd ever be
able to
> > >remember it <bg>.  It's just too arcane. One of the things I was trying
to
> > >suggest with %Part - %Segment - %Subfld - %Item was that the portion
extracted
> > >depended on the *D or whatever that was coded - I don't see that the
BIF needs
> > >to have a strong association with date/time/timestamp per se.  Who
knows -
> > there
> > >may be other things we want to extract components from in future - why
tie it
> > to
> > >DTZ?
> >
> > I agree that "%subdtz" is a bit awkward.  How about "%subd" or
> > "%subdt"?  (I'm currently leaning towards "%subdt".)
> >
> > I sympathize with what you're saying about making it general,
> > but in the absence of specific scenarios, it's hard to picture
> > the usefulness.  Furthermore, different compound objects have
> > different characteristics which make the design of a common
> > extract bif difficult.  Look at the current precedent, "%subst".
> > The attributes of a component of a string (position, length)
> > are different than the attributes of a component of a date,
> > time, or timestamp value (year, month, etc.).  For some other
> > possible compound type, the attributes of a component will
> > likely be different again.
> >
> > Cheers!  Hans
> >
> > Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com
> >
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