RE: New RPG programmers

["James H H Lampert" <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> RPG's SELECT is much more powerful than the C-based languages SWITCH
> statement, which only allows an integer value.  That is, you can switch
> on an integer, then execute a case based on a hard-coded value.  RPG's
> WHEN statement is much more powerful, allowing you to go so far as to
> execute external procedures to determine the case.

Very good. You've identified a STRENGTH of RPG.

Then again, in the C-based languages (C, C++, Java, C#, and so on), and in
the ALGOLs (ALGOL-60, Pascal, Modula-2, and to a certain extent, PL/I),
you have an IF/ELSE construct, which can be chained to form IF/ELSE IF/ .
. . /ELSE constructs very cleanly, rather than the IF/ELSE/ENDIF construct
found in RPG and the QBASICs, which leaves you with a bunch of ENDIFs at
the end if you chain them. RPG SELECT is actually a hybrid between a
traditional CASE construct and a chained IF.

On the other hand, the C switch statement requires you to explicitly
"break" at the point where you want to leave the switch construct, or it
will simply continue executing the statements in the successive cases.
Sure, it's a big GOTCHA most of the time, but once in a while, it can be
very useful, cutting down on an awful lot of code duplication. Then again,
practically EVERYTHING peculiar to C is a big GOTCHA most of the time, but
very useful once in a while.

--
JHHL