Re: XLATE

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Œ
Hello Chris,

I don't think the problem is with XLATE.  It is simply business as usual with 
varying length fields.

>c     ctoadl:cTOAD  XLATE     RawMicrIn     RawMicr

In this example RawMicr is an empty variable length string and therefore has a 
length of zero.  Since XLATE, like all character operation codes, stops when 
it reaches the end of the shortest string there is no room for any translated 
data thus:

>RawMicrIn = 't123456789t 1234 456789o    a123456a'
>RawMicr = '' after the XLATE.

>but:
>c                   EVAL      RawMicr = RawMicrIn
>c     ctoadl:cTOAD  XLATE     RawMicr       RawMicr

The EVAL statement assigns the contents and sets the length at the same time 
and now you have room in the RawMicr field thus:

>RawMicrIn = 'T123456789T 1234 456789O    A123456A'

You will have similar 'difficulites' when substringing into an empty varying 
length field. For example:

d aString         s             80a   inz  varying
c                   EVAL      %SUBST(aString:1:10) = 'XYZ1234'

will fail with RNX0100 because aString has a length of zero and thus there is 
no room at the inn.  You need to set the length beforehand with the %LEN BIF.  
Using your code as an example:

c                   EVAL      %LEN(RawMicr) = %LEN(RawMicrIn)
c     ctoadl:cTOAD  XLATE     RawMicrIn     RawMicr

in the case of the earlier string example you would need to do something like:

c                   EVAL      %LEN(aString) = %SIZE(aString) - 2
c                   EVAL      %SUBST(aString:1:10) = 'XYZ1234'
c                   EVAL      %LEN(aString) = %LEN(%TRIM(aString))

or simply

c                   EVAL      %LEN(aString) = %SIZE(aString) - 2
c                   EVAL      aString = 'XYZ1234'

As an aside has anyone tried doing an ATTR on a varying length string in the 
ILE debugger?  That's an exercise in futility ... it might be a documented 
restriction but I can't be bothered looking it up :)

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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