Re: Clear entire field vs substring

On 2012-05-21, at 3:54 PM, rpg400-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I have a work field that is 2000 bytes (to allow for the longest

possible string value). The length of the data being moved to it varies and
can be quite short. I have to clear the work field before I move the data.

Which is better:

Neither are necessary.

An eval will always clear unused bytes in the back end of the string.

I think Chuck is wrong about the varying in that I'm fairly certain that
it actually places blanks in the back end of the field even though (because
of the length) it doesn't need to. It certainly pads when you use %Len to
increase the field length. I seem to recall a conversation with Barbara
where she told me that they had decided that setting the back end of a
varying to blanks was probably a waste of time but by then couldn't change
the behaviour because undoubtedly someone had decided it was a "feature" by
then.


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com




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