Re: DDE bugs

>Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 12:25:00 -0500
>From: D.BALE@handleman.com
> ...
>However, in my development testing, I am being reminded that TESTN does
not
>work on numeric fields.  So now I have to move the numeric value to an
alpha.
>I will follow a tip that someone else shared last month:
>
>     C                     MOVE *ZEROS    WORK## 31
>     C                     MOVELHDRSWP    WORK##
>     C                     TESTN          WORK##     91
>     C... etc. for several more fields

Dan, if HDRSWP is a zoned value, you can get a DDE exception on the
MOVEL to WORK##.  Also, you should use MOVE, not MOVEL, to get the
sign byte positioned correctly.

It would be easier to use RPG IV for this:

D zonedBytes         s       30a  based(pZonedBytes)

C          MOVEL    *ZEROS     WORK##
C          EVAL     pZonedBytes = %ADDR(HDRSWP)
C          EVAL     %SUBST(WORK## : %size(WORK##) - %size(HDRSWP) + 1)
C                      = %SUBST(zonedBytes : 1 : %size(HDRSWP)
C          TESTN               WORK##

Or better, write a subprocedure:

D testZoned      pr           1n
D   pZoned                     *   value
D   len                      10i 0 value

C            eval    *in91 = testZoned(%addr(HDRSWP) : %size(HDRSWP))
C            eval    *in91 = testZoned(%addr(HDRDTM) : %size(HDRDTM))

 ...
P testZoned      b
D testZoned      pi           1n
D   pZoned                     *   value
D   len                      10i 0 value

D WORK##         s           30a   inz(*zeros)
D zonedBytes     s           30a   based(pZoned)
D saveInd        s            1n
D retInd         s            1n

C          EVAL     saveInd = *IN91
C          EVAL     %SUBST(WORK## : 30 - len + 1)
C                      = %SUBST(zonedBytes : 1 : len)
C          TESTN               WORK##         91
C          EVAL     retInd = *IN91
C          EVAL     *IN91 = saveInd
C          RETURN   retInd

P testZoned      e

>But I am left wondering, since it is possible for numeric variables to
DDEs,
>why wasn't TESTN ever designed to work with both alpha and numeric
variables?

Dan, I remember being surprised myself that TESTN wasn't for numeric
fields,
and also that when applied to character fields, TESTN couldn't test for
valid
packed data.  It looks to me like TESTN was designed for a very specific
purpose that isn't particularly relevant any more.

Barbara Morris


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