Data Structure Constant

I have a data structure and I'd like for its contents to never be changed, enforced by the compiler. How do I do this?

One situation I've run into is where I want to initialize an output data structure parameter. I can't reset it. I can't cheat and base another DS on it and reset that DS. I can clear the fields individually, but that sucks, right? This will also be called a ton of times, so I want to pass the data by reference (so not using a return value). What I ended up doing is creating a static DS to house all the default values so I can initialize the output parameter with it. However it does leave the initialization DS open to being modified.

Another situation is I tend to create data structure arrays, which long ago would have been compile time tables. Each subfield is an element in an array (so each element has a given name if I ever need to reference one specific value). However, these values could be changed, and I have to rely programmers not changing it (vs the compiler not letting them).

Thoughts on creating a data structure constant?

I'm on v5r4.

Kurt Anderson
Sr Programmer/Analyst
CustomCall Data Systems