Re: Using an Expression to control a FOR loop

[Terrence Enger <tenger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Arthur,

If I understand what you are doing, you could say something like ...

    if %len( coldta ) < cwdth( #col );
      coldta = %subst( '000000000000000'  // "lots" of zeros
                     : 1
                     : cwdth( #col ) - %len( coldta )
                     ) + coldta;
    endif;

Whether this is easier to understand than an explicit loop, is a matter
of taste.  I confess that I find neither way very transparent.  Can
someone here give us a clearer solution?

Cheers,
Terry.


On Wed, 2009-03-25 at 11:01 -0400, Arthur Marino wrote:
> This FOR loop is supposed to prefix the 'varying' character field
> "coldta" with zeros so as to right-justify the value in the column's
> defined field length. "i" is defined as 5i 0.
>
> for i = 1 to (cwdth(#col)-%len(coldta));
> coldta = '0' + coldta;
> endfor;
>
> Debug tells me:
> cwdth(#col) = 5         (the column's defined field length)
> coldta = '134'  (%len(coldta)=3, I inserted an explicit calc to be sure)
>
> "coldta" should wind up being '00134'.
>
> I expect the loop to iterate twice (5 - 3). Yet, it does so only ONCE.
> After the 'endfor' i = 2, not 3 as I'd expect, and coldta contains 0134
> (only 4 bytes).
>
> When I insert the calc "len = cwdth(#col)-%len(coldta);" and replace the
> expression with "for i = 1 to len", it iterates twice, i = 3 after the
> 'endfor', and coldta=00134 (5 bytes).
>
> Is there something I'm not getting about the evaluation of the
> expression in the FOR loop? It certainly appears that 5 - 3 results in
> 1, not 2.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Arthur Marino
>
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