Re: FW: Keyword on DSPF entry field

["Norm Dennis" <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

SDA used to have a flag for mandatory entry (ME) in the S/36 days but I don't
recall seeing it in recent years.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Handy" <dhandy1@bellsouth.net>
To: <rpg400-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 12:15 AM
Subject: Re: FW: Keyword on DSPF entry field


Nelson,

>C'mon, guys.  This is a real production problem we have, and I've had no
>responses from anyone, yet

Probably because I don't think it can be done in the manner you hope..

>We need to be able to prevent users from tabbing or arrowing out of a
>numeric field without first doing a field exit.  There must be some standard
>way of preventing this error.

I do have a standard way of preventing the error -- I don't use numeric fields,
and gave up on them even back on the S/36.  Instead I use character fields from
the program viewpoint, so that the WS controller and/or the OS service routines
do not interpret the contents.

This lets me perform my own character to numeric conversions (in a service
program on the 400, it was monolithic standardized subroutine on the S/36), and
handle left justified fields correctly and issue errors when there are embedded
blanks.

As has often been discussed here, don't try to use C's atoi() function for this.
You need your own routine -- like what Barbara Morris has often posted -- so you
can correctly interpret the numbers and issues errors when the contents is
ambigous.

Doug
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