RE: HereDoc

Not really a question, just saying it might be useful to have such a
facility in the RPG compiler. The pre-compiler idea mentioned earlier is
interesting, Though going through multiple levels of pre-compilers may be
somewhat tricky, for my application there would be the HereDoc
pre-compiler, then the SQL pre-compiler, and I often am working in a 2E
environment with it's own pre-compiler. How to make them all work
together might be a challenge, though the 2E precompiler might be the help
I need to kick of the HereDoc pre-compiler. I certainly wouldn't want it
to be a manual process. Not in the long run anyway.

The problem with a local extension to the RPG language via my own home
grown pre-compiler is that SEU and WDSC would both throw errors on the new
syntax, and that might be worse than the extra quotes and line
continuation markers.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



From: "Tom Armbruster" <tarmbruster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "RPG programming on the IBM i / System i" <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 01/20/2011 10:28 AM
Subject: RE: HereDoc
Sent by: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx



Hi Mark,

What exactly is the question here?

PHP, most web based scripting languages for that matter, make string
concatenation easier and usually more legible to the naked eye than RPG.

Are you planning to use PHP instead of RPG in this situation? Do you
want to pass the concatenation duties to a PHP script? If the latter is
the case, you wouldn't necessarily need a utility like HereDoc. It
could be a simple parameterized function that could be called via
Scott's HTTPAPI.

Tom Armbruster

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mark Murphy/STAR
BASE Consulting Inc.
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 6:46 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i/System i
Subject: HereDoc

Some time ago I learned PHP, and was introduced to a concept called
HereDoc. Essentially a way to insert a string inline. Didn't really
see
the use of it, and never really thought about it much until now. I have
a
piece of code where it would be highly useful for improving the
readability of my program. Unfortunately The use is in an RPG program,

and the feature does not exist there.

Anyway here is what I was thinking. I am using dynamic SQL in a
particular program (so that I can use set schema to direct unqualified
references to the environment of my choice). Some of the SQL commands
are
quite complex, and I have to double quotes in my string literals. the
whole thing degenerates into a bunch of extra quotes and continuation
marks that would not be necessary with a HereDoc.

Consider the following (very simple, but serves to make the point):

updateStmt =
'Update MCPSRV Set SESCLS=''O'', ' +
' semdat = Date_As_Cymd(Current_Date), ' +
' semtim = time_As_Hms(Current_Time), seuser = user, ' +
' sempgm = ''SQL'' ' +
'Where SEICD9=''V2020Z''';

With a HereDoc I could write something like:

updateStmt = <<<DOC
Update MCPSRV Set SESCLS='O',
semdat = Date_As_Cymd(Current_Date),
semtim = time_As_Hms(Current_Time), seuser = user,
sempgm = 'SQL'
Where SEICD9='V2020Z'
<<<DOC

Even with a simple example the lack of superfluous quotes and
continuation
marks makes the second far more readable than the first.

Any thoughts?

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx