RE: ALLOC help

["Jim Langston" <jlangston@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ahh, anything can be done in computers.

You could do it, but you would have to internally describe the
file.  Then you would need to look up the position of the
field in the file description.  Then you would need to get the
data directly from the buffer %Subst(FileBuffer, Start, Finish).

In fact, someone wrote a freeware utility that does this type
of thing, and you can find a link to it in the midrange-l archives.
I've not seen the source, so am not positive how he does it, but
he would be the one to know.

Regards,

Jim Langston
Programmer/Analyst
Cels Enterprises, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:rpg400-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of Scott Klement
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 1:13 PM
To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
Subject: Re: ALLOC help




On Fri, 7 Sep 2001, Tony Pack wrote:

> Hi all,
>       I think this can be done, but this is new to me.  I want to read a
> record from a file, get the value from a field, and then use that value's
> name as a field within the program.

You can't do that, sorry.   Here's a gross oversimplification of why:
The  variable's "name" is usually something symbolic that makes it easier
for you to write your program.   Once the program has been compiled, that
name is gone -- it's working with addresses in memory instead.

So, you can't use data in a file to give you a variable name -- At least
not directly.

> I am reading on ALLOC and DEALLOC, and it looks as if I can use the
> pointers to create a heap space and then set it's value via pointers.
> Has anyone got any examples of a similar task they would care to share?

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to do.  Are you just looking for
examples of how to use pointers?   Or are you actually looking for
something more specific?

Perhaps if I had an idea of what you need to accomplish and why, I might
be able to show you a technique that would help...   can you send more
information?

Thanks!

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