RE: XLATE

Thank You Hans for your explanation of why variable length fields sometime
work and other times don't.  I missed the part about fix calcs not setting
the size of varying length fields.  I do understand your reasoning for doing
so.  If I had a chance to vote on how to implement variable length fields, I
would have voted for fixed calc specs setting the length of the variable
length result fields.  I know it is to late to change it and don't expect
you to.  I will keep the behavior in mind and use them correctly in the
future.

I did know about the %xlate and tried it but SEU and the compiler did not
like it.  I am at 4.4.  

Again thanks for your response.


Christopher K. Bipes    mailto:ChrisB@Cross-Check.com
Sr. Programmer/Analyst  mailto:Chris_Bipes@Yahoo.com
CrossCheck, Inc.        http://www.cross-check.com
6119 State Farm Drive   Phone: 707 586-0551 x 1102
Rohnert Park CA  94928  Fax: 707 586-1884

If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, only geniuses work here.
Karen Herbelin - Readers Digest 3/2000

-----Original Message-----
From: boldt@ca.ibm.com [mailto:boldt@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 5:30 AM
To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
Subject: Re: XLATE



Simon already gave a good answer to the question.  I'd just
like to add that the behavior is a basic principle behind
using varying length strings in the old fixed-form calc
specs.

In a fixed-form calc, a varying length field works exactly
the same as a fixed length field with the same current
length.  That is, if the current length of a varying length
field is 17, it is treated as a fixed length A(17) field,
regardless of how long the field is actually declared.  It
was designed this way to handle the semantics of the fixed-
form character operations.  For example, many of the fixed-
form calcs, such as MOVE, don't change the entire result
field.  Some modify only the right-most characters, others
only the left-most characters.  Since EVAL changes the
entire result, it can assign a length properly.

(BTW, I always like to advertize V5R1 RPG IV features, and
here's a good opportunity to mention the new %XLATE built-in
function.)

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com

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