RE: Activation Groups, external sub procedures, and OVRDBF (AaronBartell)

If overriding the file is your main intent, why not override it in the file 
spec using EXTFILE key word. You can use a variable to manipulate the file name 
or a constant if it's always the same file.

Here's what it says in the manual:
EXTFILE(filename)
The EXTFILE keyword specifies which file, in which library, is opened. The value
can be a literal or a variable. You can specify the value in any of the 
following
forms:
filename
libname/filename
*LIBL/filename
Notes:
1. You cannot specify *CURLIB as the library name.
2. If you specify a file name without a library name, *LIBL is used.
3. The name must be in the correct case. For example, if you specify
EXTFILE(filename) and variable filename has the value ’qtemp/myfile’, the file
will not be found. Instead, it should have the value ’QTEMP/MYFILE’.
4. This keyword is not used to find an externally-described file at compile 
time.
5. If a variable name is used, it must be set before the file is opened. For 
files that

are opened automatically during the initialization part of the cycle, the 
variable
must be set in one of the following ways:
v Using the INZ keyword on the D specification
v Passing the value in as an entry parameter
v Using a program-global variable that is set by another module.
If you have specified an override for the file that RPG will open, that 
override will
be in effect. In the following code, for the file named INPUT within the RPG
program, the file that is opened at runtime depends on the value of the filename
field.
Finput if f 10 disk extfile(filename)
If the filename field has the value MYLIB/MYFILE at runtime, RPG will open the
file MYLIB/MYFILE. If the command OVRDBF MYFILE OTHERLIB/OTHERFILE
has been used, the actual file opened will be OTHERLIB/OTHERFILE. Note that
any overrides for the name INPUT will be ignored, since INPUT is only the name
used within the RPG source member.


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CD Salas Jr.
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Issaquah, WA 98027