Re: System36 File Access in a Procedure

[Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Hitting a problem with the following; I have an external procedure that 
> chains to a program described System/36 file.  The chain is successful, 
> but none of the fields are returned??

What do you mean by "external procedure"?  Are you talking about a S/36 
OCL procedure?  Or are you talking about a subprocedure?

I'm not aware of any way to chain to a file in a S/36 OCL procedure, so 
I'll assume that you mean an RPG IV subprocedure.  In which case, this 
isn't a S/36 program or a S/36 procedure at all.  (and throwing the term 
"S/36" in there will only serve to confuse us.)

Assuming this is an RPG IV subprocedure, the problem is almost certainly 
due to global vs. local copies of the variables. What do you mean by 
"external"? Is it in a separate module?  Or is it in the same module, but 
marked with "EXPORT" so that it can be called externally?

If the CHAIN is in a separate module, do you understand that the input 
specs have to be in the same module as the CHAIN operation?  If so, how 
are you intending to get the fields copied back to the calling program?

If you have each field declared as a parameter to the subprocedure, you 
must make sure that the parameter names do not match the field names from 
the input specs.  Why?  Because the parameters would be considered "local" 
to the subprocedure.  File access always puts data into global variables, 
never local.

> If I change the procedure to a standalone program, the chain is still 
> successful and all fields are retrieved. What am I missing here? Nothing 
> found in archives. Any help much appreciated.

When you change it to a standalone program, the parameters become global 
as well, and therefore there's no conflict.