Re: Passing a file to a procedure

Hi Rory,

<snip>
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).
</snip>


Surely it doesn't work the same way. I can't see how that would work with
multiple files. Surely a single internally defined file definition (using a
single F-spec) in a module can not allow you to open, say, 64 different
files and keep a track of where the file pointer is in each of them. I would
imagine I would need an F-spec for each file I want to keep open. Is there
some clever trick with internally defined files and EXTFILE that I'm
missing? Or are you calling a procedure in another module, using SHARE(*YES)
and using that to keep the ODP open even after you close it in your original
module? Or is this a single-hit process - open, read, close - do it all in
one go, no concurrency. Hmmm... I don't get it.

Could you expand on that please?

Cheers

Larry Ducie