Re: Iterate through the fields in an externally described datastructure

Hello,

Yeah, if you printed packed fields without doing any conversion, they'd
print as garbage.   The same would be true of other data types, such as
binary...

However, you COULD convert the data that you substring into a readable
value.  I.e. manually "unpack" the packed data and print it... Or call a
function from MI or the C runtime that would convert the packed data to
something human readable.

It might be a bit of a pain, but it should at least be possible :)



On Thu, 11 Apr 2002 MWalter@hanoverwire.com wrote:
>
> Here's one to chew on. Is there a way, preferably in RPGLE, to iterate
> through the fields in an externally described data structure and display,
> print, compare the values. Here's my problem.
>
> I have a file with about 60 fields that needs  an audit when it's changed.
> A perfect application for a trigger program. The problem is that they don't
> want a copy of the entire record only the fields that have been changed.
> I'd like a way to not have to change the trigger program if the database
> changes so I want to systematically iterate through the fields in the
> before and after buffer and compare the contents. If they are different,
> write a record to an audit file. Sort of like the .fields collection in VB.
>
>  I thought of using the output from a QUSLFLD API and comparing values as a
> substring of the DS, but I think it would puke on Packed fields.