RE: Indicator enhancements (was Bale, Dan)

Either way, I'd have to know what MyProc was returning.  If it's returning
an integer, what does -1, 0, or 1 mean?  If it's returning 'ExistingCust',
well I know what that means without having to look any further.

And, unless there's a huge price to pay for using character string vs.
integer value, I'd go with what's clear & understandable any day.

That said, I've already replied to Scott Mildenberger about his warning with
regards to mispelling the literal and how I'll less likely cut my own throat
when the compiler catches the error.

So, my new standard is to use constants as was shown in the original
example.

- Dan Bale

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Langston [mailto:jlangston@conexfreight.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 4:04 PM
To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Indicator enhancements (was Bale, Dan)


Dan, you say you have to look in the D-Specs to see how the constants
are defined, but what would you have t look at to see that the return code
is 'ExistingCust' ?  Also, that return code is a character string, which
takes
up a lot for room on the stack than an integer value (packed).

Regards,

Jim Langston

"Bale, Dan" wrote:

> Me, I'd just junk the defined constants and use literals in the
expression.
> That way I don't have to bother looking up the D-specs to see how the
> constants are defined.
>
> C              Eval     RtnCode = MyProc( MyParm )
> C              Select
> C              When     RtnCode = 'ExistingCust'
>  * Perform existing customer processing
> C              When     RtnCode = 'NewCust'
>  * Perform new customer processing
> C              When     RtnCode = 'Error'
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bmorris@ca.ibm.com [mailto:bmorris@ca.ibm.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 2:12 PM
> To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: Indicator enhancements (was Bale, Dan)
>
> >Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2000 17:07:10 -0600
> >From: Gary Guthrie <GaryGuthrie@home.com>
> >
> > I submit it might be clearer to:
> >
> >D Error        S      N  Inz( *Negative )
> >D ExistingCust S      N  Inz( *Positive )
> >D NewCust      S      N  Inz( *Off )
> >C              Eval     RtnCode = MyProc( MyParm )
> >C              Select
> >C              When     RtnCode = ExistingCust
> > * Perform existing customer processing
> >
> >C              When     RtnCode = NewCust
> > * Perform new customer processing
> >
> >C              When     RtnCode = Error
> > ...
>
> Gary, I don't see that *NEGATIVE appears to have general
> usefulness.  Aside from that, indicators hold boolean values.
> If you want to return more than 2 different values, use a
> type that has more than 2 values, and use named constants
> for your special values, in both your procedure and its
> callers.
>
> D Error        C         -1
> D ExistingCust C         1
> D NewCust      C         0
>
> C              Eval     RtnCode = MyProc( MyParm )
> C              Select
> C              When     RtnCode = ExistingCust
>  * Perform existing customer processing
> C              When     RtnCode = NewCust
>  * Perform new customer processing
> C              When     RtnCode = Error
>  ...
>
> Barbara Morris

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