RE: CLEAR Question for Input Files

[Buck Calabro <Buck.Calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Typically, I CHAIN to the file and then fill the 
>screen fields.
>
>My problem is that if the CHAIN fails (which it will, 
>from time to time), I get decimal data errors on 
>the screen fields. I thought I could solve this by 
>using CLEAR on the data file format, but CLEAR 
>doesn't work since the file is input only.

What I do is a PUTOVR/OVRDTA with just the subfile error message indicating
that the record wasn't located in the database.  In other words, I don't
change the contents of the display except to send out an error message.
This way the user can see the old record and try to figure out what
happened: was it a mis-key or a genuine missing record?

The decimal data error is almost certainly because you have some fields in a
data structure.  Data structures are initialised to *BLANK at *INZSR time.
To override this and have your numeric fields initialised to zero, use the
INZ keyword (or IDS in RPG III).
  --buck