Re: Passing a file to a procedure

Larry,

Well you *could* code this in 'native' RPG - simply have an internally
defined file defined with USROPN and EXTFILE. You have one procedure to
'load' the file which basically puts the file/library name into an array and
returns an integer (the index in the array). You then pass this integer to
your other procedures, which look up the array to get the file/library name,
load the EXTFILE variable, open the file and do whatever they need to in
terms of READ, CHAIN, WRITE etc. and then close the file. All the procedures
only know the file handle (except, obviously, the first one, where you
specify the file to be processed).

I have a series of procedures which do this, which I originally wrote to use
OVRDBF (since this was before the EXTFILE keyword existed). If you're
continuously opening and closing a file, it can be slow, but if you're
typically just doing something to the same file, you can keep track of the
'current' file and use that to determine whether to open/close it. Keyed
operations are tricky, but not impossible.

It's doable, but as you say, it's easier just to use either the _R* API's or
just to write it in C.

Rory

On Nov 27, 2007 1:56 AM, Larry Ducie <Larry_Ducie@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

...You can't get the functionality you request in native RPG file I/O
code...
Larry Ducie