RE: Sorting a user space -- RPG400-L

No it cannot.
This is a common misconception.
They never change the layout. They create new layouts and add new fields to
those new layouts.

That's not true. They add fields to existing layouts at least as often asthey add new layouts.

The real truth is that they send you a variable with a length. You needto USE THAT VARIABLE rahter than just assume what the length will be.It's really that simple.


The problem is, when you post code like this:

 D MyArray     S           10A    Dim(1500)
 D                                BASED(pArray)


 C               eval     pArray = CrtUsrSpcPtr()

What you're saying in that instance is that each element of the list thatIBM sends you through the API will always be 10 bytes long. Even thoughthey send you a variable that says how long it is, you STILL code "10A" onthe array definition.

That's just wrong, and there's a HUGE chance that it'll breakcompatibility.

That's why QSORT is a better solution for this! Because the length ofeach element can be a variable -- you can use the variable that the APIpasses you rather than hard-coding the element length to "10A" which wouldbe the only real solution if you wanted to use SORTA.

If you absolutely MUST hard code a length, and you absolutely MUST useSORTA because you'll jump through hoops forever just to avoid QSORT, thenyou should use the approach that Jim Wiant suggested. In that situation,you're sorting an array of your own devising rather than one provided byIBM, and therefore you won't have a chance of breaking anything.


But, IMHO, the code to sort with QSORT would be both faster and simpler.

In some rare cases, they do add one or two additional fields to the end of
the data structure, but since they also return the length of that data
structure in the BytesReturned subfield, if you're a good programmer, you'd
check that value anyway.


I'd agree with you if we weren't talking about the list apis...

APIs are meant to NOT break on future releases. That's why my RPG xToolshaven't blow up once due to an IBM API change during the 5 releasesthey've been available.

You're absolutely right that APIs are meant to not break in futurereleases, and that's exactly why they pass you the length of the element,and expect you to use it instead of hard-coding it.