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  • Subject: Re: Procedure Problem
  • From: "Scott Klement" <infosys@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: 20 Dec 1999 17:39:54 -0600

Hi Mark,

I'm really glad you included the source code...  it made it easy for
me to understand what you needed help with!

First of all, lets take a look at your prototype...   Note that you
are passing your parameters by REFERENCE as opposed to passing it
by VALUE.  Passing by reference is the default method, and its
certainly the one that I prefer for passing strings, since its
faster, and you can return changes to the string and have it be
changed in the calling routine.  However, please understand that
this means that the compiler is actually passing the ADDRESS
in main storage to your procedure, *NOT* the values of the bytes
that are stored there!

So, when you pass "dsshpnm" to the Center sub-proc, what its
actually receiving is a pointer to the start of the area of memory
where dsshpnm is stored.

Next, you're using the MOVEA op-code to move instring to work_arr.
Since instring is defined as 256 bytes long, you're actually
telling the computer to move "256 bytes, starting at the
address of the dsshpnm variable"

Do you see why this results in you passing the remainder of the
data structure?   If you look more closely, you'll probably see
that its also passing additional data after your data structure,
since the DS is only 155 bytes long, but instring is 256!

A few things pop into my mind.   First, its important that when
you use OPTIONS(*VARSIZE) that you find out the length of the
original variable thats being passed, and make sure you ONLY use
THAT MUCH of the variable.  (Imagine if you were changing the
data that was passed!  If you're not careful, you could end up
accidentally changing the values of other variables in memory!!!)
Presumably, this is why you're passing the Len parameter to begin
with!

Second, you could simply remove the options(*varsize) from your
prototype/interface.  What good is it really doing you?  This way,
you could use "instring" as a 256 byte string without any problems.

Third, if you do want to use options(*varsize) you could use an
operational descriptor to get the string length, and then make
sure that you only reference that length of data...

Here's an example of this:

D* Note the OPDESC keyword, this tells the calling routine to
D*  pass an operational descriptor for each parameter...
D Center          PR           256A   OPDESC
D   instring                   256A   Const Options(*varsize)

D* I'm at V3R2, and so I can't directly reference "shiptods"
D*   in the overlay statements.  However, the way you were
D*   doing it should work fine...
D shiptods        ds
D   dswhole                    155
D   dsshpnm                     35    overlay(dswhole:1)
D   dsship1                     35    overlay(dswhole:36)
D   dsship2                     35    overlay(dswhole:71)
D   dsship3                     35    overlay(dswhole:106)
D   dsshpst                      2    overlay(dswhole:141)
D   dsshpzp                     10    overlay(dswhole:143)
D   dsshpco                      3    overlay(dswhole:153)

C* test the center sub-proc
c                   eval      dsshpnm = 'CENTER ME'
c                   eval      output = Center(dsshpnm)
c                   dsply                   output           35

c                   eval      *inlr = *on


P*++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P*     routine to center text within its own field...
P*++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P Center          B
D Center          PI           256A   OPDESC
D   instring                   256A   Const Options(*varsize)

D* This API is documented in the Integrated Language Enviornment (ILE)
D*      CEE API's manual.
D GetStrInf       PR                  ExtProc('CEEGSI')
D   ParmNum                     10I 0 const
D   DataType                    10I 0
D   CurrLen                     10I 0
D   MaxLen                      10I 0

D dataType        S             10I 0
D currLen         S             10I 0
D maxLen          S             10I 0
D work_str        S            256A
D work_rtn        S            256A
D work_pad        S             10I 0

C* Find out how long instring is...
c                   callp     GetStrInf(1: dataType: currLen: maxLen)

C* Only use the amount that was passed...
c                   eval      work_str = %subst(instring: 1: currLen)

C* how many spaces do we need to pad the string to make it centered?
C     ' '           checkr    work_str      work_pad
c                   eval(h)   work_pad = (currLen - work_pad) / 2

C* pad the string
c                   eval      work_rtn = *blanks
c                   eval      %subst(work_rtn:work_pad+1) = work_str

C* return the result
c                   return    work_rtn
P                 E


Hope that helps!



"Mark Walter" <mwalter@netrax.net> wrote:
> All,
>
> I have a service program of string handling routines I am trying to
> develop. I have a procedure called "Center" that receives a string
> and an output len then centers the text into a field. I defined the
> parameters as 256 with the CONST and OPTIONS(*varsize) keywords. The
> problem is when i try to pass a sub-element of a data structure to
> the procedure, the entire data structure is passed, not just the
> sub-element. I have included code snippets below.
>
> TIA
>
> Mark Walter
>
> Test program module source
>
>     Dshiptods         ds           155
>     D dsshpnm                       35    OVERLAY(shiptods:1)
>     D dsship1                       35    OVERLAY(shiptods:36)
>     D dsship2                       35    OVERLAY(shiptods:71)
>     D dsship3                       35    OVERLAY(shiptods:106)
>     D dsshpst                        2    OVERLAY(shiptods:141)
>     D dsshpzp                       10    OVERLAY(shiptods:143)
>     D dsshpco                        3    OVERLAY(shiptods:153)
>      *
>     Dlen              s              3p 0 INZ(35)
>     Doutput           s             35
>     Dcusno            s              8  0 inz(206800)
>     Dstore            s              8    inz('A1889')
>      *
>     C                   EVAL      shiptods = GetShipto(cusno:store)
>
>     C                   EVAL      output = Center(dsshpnm:len)
>     C   output       DSPLY
>     C                   CLEAR                   output
>
> String handling service program
>
>    HNOMAIN
>
>     * module prototypes
>
>    DCenter           PR           256
>
>    D instring                     256    OPTIONS(*varsize) CONST
>
>    D strlen                         3p 0 CONST
>
>     * Procedure Interface
>
>    PCenter           B                   EXPORT
>
>    DCenter           PI           256
>
>    D instring                     256    OPTIONS(*varsize) CONST
>
>    D strlen                         3p 0 CONST
>
>     * work fields
>
>    D outstring       S            256
>
>    Dwork_arr         S              1    DIM(256)
>
>    Dx                S              3  0
>
>    Dstrt             S              3  0
>
>      C                   MOVEA     instring      work_arr
>
>
> Instring contains the entire data structure

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