RE: Assigning the actual length of a variable length field

Thanks Matt - adding the null to the end of the string did the trick. My 
output 
file is now 1k. 

"Now I just have to get the (first) two bytes representing the actual 
lenght out of the data itself."

Tommy: "Couldn't you just use substring? mydata = %subst(data:3:datalen);"

I thought of that too and tried it but it truncated the first two bytes of 
real data. I'm pretty sure that by nature, the variable length field will 
always have a hex value representing the actual data length in the first 
two bytes. As it turns out it is not a problem, since the next program in 
the job stream knows how to look for the characters that represent the 
beginning of the 'real' data. At this point I can consider the problem 
solved. 

Simon: "Then you're not doing it properly. The VARYING variable *WILL* be 
set correctly using %TRIMR(fixed-variable)." It was correct after I added 
a x'00' to the end of the data as suggested by Matt. 
"If you're writing a varying length buffer and you already have the length 
available why are you using a VARYING variable. Seems very backwards to 
me." 

I'm not sure what you are saying here. I use varying length variables 
because of the nature of the application. I access large streams of data 
(HL7) from hospitals outside of my domain. I then need to read it into an 
RPG program so that I can update some of that data to make it compatible 
with my in-house electronic medical record system (EMR). Since the input 
data is manipulated to remove some bytes and add others, I never know how 
long an actual HL7 message (read or writte) may be. Some are less than 
1000 bytes and some could be 25,000+ bytes, hence the 64k varying 
variable.

Thanks to all of you for your input. 

I have reached the point where I have my application working as expected. 

I can now follow up on trying some of the suggestions and techniques as 
suggested by Scott Klement and Bob Cozzi. 

Regards, Jerry

Gerald Kern - MIS Project Leader
Lotus Notes/Domino Administrator
IBM Certified RPG IV Developer
The Toledo Clinic, Inc.
4235 Secor Road
Toledo, OH 43623-4299
Phone 419-479-5535
gkern@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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