Re: simple problem with string handling

[Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Dale

Varying-length variables will perform better than fixed-length ones, 
generally. Because a varying knows where the data ends, so concatenation 
and other text operations are easier.

At least one caveat - if you fill a varying from a fixed, the length 
includes any trailing blanks in the fixed - trimming is not performed 
automatically.

Of course, the performance benefits apply most when there are lots of 
concatenation, for example. I had an app that built HTML strings, and 
changing it to use a varying for the output string made the thing pop. 
There were lots of concatenations like webDta = webDta + 'some more 
text'; (This was before the += operator).

Putting varying data into a fixed variable is no problem, so feeding it 
to a DSPF field is not a concert - there'd be no disadvantage that I 
know of.

So if you have a fair amount of concatenation, I suggest making a 
varying work field, trimming on input, then completing the work, then 
output to the display.

For some reason I think there is  *TRIM option somewhere, maybe on a 
parameter, if so, make a procedure with that, then it's REALLY simple 
and nice.

HTH
Vern

On 2/20/2013 12:37 PM, dale janus wrote:
> Thanks for the TRIM and TRIMR advice.
>
> I would consider a varying length field except this is going to be
> printed on a form, so the length will end up fixed anyway.  Besides, how
> much new stuff do you expect me to put into this old program? Next think
> you know I'll be asking /FREE questions.
> Actually, I did copy of bit of /Free code to fill an array in another
> program.  I was surprised at how clean and simple it ended up .  Maybe
> this /free thing might catch on...
>
> It's taking this old dog a long time to learn some of these tricks.   But
> I'm trying.
>
> ---Dale