RE: *LOVAL in arithmetic expression

Cor,

I think that *HIVAL and *LOVAL have a very specific meaning in RPG.

Try this:

d hivalint s 10i 0 inz(*hival)
d lovalint s 10i 0 inz(*loval)
d hivalpack s 10p 0 inz(*hival)
d lovalpack s 10p 0 inz(*loval)
/free
Dsply hivalint;
Dsply lovalint;
Dsply hivalpack;
Dsply lovalpack;
Return;
/end-free

When you run this program, here's what you get:

DSPLY 2147483647
DSPLY 2147483648-
DSPLY 9999999999
DSPLY 9999999999-

So when talking about a 10i 0 variable, *HIVAL is not "something very
high", but 2.147.483.648 exactly.

Meaning that "*HIVAL - 1" is also an exact number (2.147.483.647)

Just trying to be a wise guy here ;-)

Peter Colpaert
Application Developer
PLI - IT - Kontich, Belgium
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RE: *LOVAL in arithmetic expression






And casting *LOVAL or *HIVAL to a more meaningfull value is nonsense as
well, these values have the meaning of "something very high" or
"something very low" and making calculations is meaningless. Adding 1 to
*Loval is comparable to adding 1 to negative infinity: the outcome is
not usable since infinity is... well as the word suggests infinite,
never ending, not having a fixed value (otherwise the concept of
infinite has to be revised and the laws of physics will change beyond
recognition).

The question is: What would be gained by allowing calculations with
special values like *LOVAL and *HIVAL?

Cor