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The reason that I used pointers is because I'm paranoid about writing data to an area of memory outside the scope of my variable. In the data structure example you give here, if I were to pass a PACKED parameter it'd be only 4 bytes long. If I were to do this: c MOVE *ZEROS PARM1 3 zeroes would be put into whatever happened to be in the area of memory that comes after my parameter. This can cause all sorts of nasty and hard to debug errors. Whereas, the way I was doing it, this can't happen. Worst case scenario, you'd try to use a field thats still based on a *NULL pointer, which the system would know is invalid and it could stop your program with an error. Granted, if your careful, it won't matter. :) I have to wonder why you say "why bother with pointers?". IMHO, pointers arent any more of a bother than data structures are. On Wed, 8 Mar 2000, Sims, Ken wrote: > Hi Scott - > > Why bother with pointers? > > d parm1 ds 7 > d zoned1 1 7s 0 > d packed1 1 4p 0 > d* > d myparm1 s 7 0 > c* > c *entry plist > c parm parm1 > c* > c if %subst(parm1:1:1) >= '0' > c eval myparm1 = zoned1 > c else > c eval myparm1 = packed1 > c endif > > Ken > Southern Wine and Spirits of Nevada, Inc. > Opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of > my employer or anyone in their right mind. > > +--- | This is the RPG/400 Mailing List! | To submit a new message, send your mail to RPG400-L@midrange.com. | To subscribe to this list send email to RPG400-L-SUB@midrange.com. | To unsubscribe from this list send email to RPG400-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com +---
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