Re: RNF0655 The item defined with the TEMPLATE keyword cannot be used in this context

Thanks Scott.

Since only VARYING strings (or expressions) has to be done at runtime I
find too restrictive the %LEN usage. As Jon remarked %LEN(MyFixedLenString)
CAN be determined at compile time.

The real problem is we recently added TEMPLATE to our dictionary, in V5R4
we used to have it based on a pointer. and we have lot of programs passing
%LEN(MyFixedLenString).

TEMPLATE and the consequent possibility of having data without allocated
storage is recent, in 2004 what was the diffrence between x =
myfunc(myvar:%len(myvar)) and x = myfunc(myvar:%size(myvar))?



--
Marco Facchinetti

Mr S.r.l.

Tel. 035 962885
Cel. 393 9620498

Skype: facchinettimarco


2013/6/18 Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

hi Marco,

%SIZE works at compile-time. As your program is compiled, the compiler
takes the total size of the object (variable, DS, etc) and inserts it in
place of the %SIZE BIF.

%LEN works at run-time. It checks the current length of the item (not
based on it's definition, but based on the data inside it -- for
example, a VARYING string can have a different length based on the data
inside of it.) Since a TEMPLATE field cannot store data, it does not
make sense to use it with %LEN.

-SK



On 6/18/2013 1:24 PM, Marco Facchinetti wrote:

Just curious why an item defined with the TEMPLATE keyword is valid as
%SIZE's argument but not for %LEN.

TIA
--
Marco Facchinetti

Mr S.r.l.

Tel. 035 962885
Cel. 393 9620498

Skype: facchinettimarco

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