Re: Handling a missing parameter in RPG III

Hi, Jim:

Of course ... it is a field in the PSDS ... use the special value *PARMS for the location ... I usually call the field "#PARMS" or similar.

e.g.
IPSDS DS
I 37 390#PARMS

NOTE: the columns above may not be exact -- just to illustrate the idea ... positions 37 to 39 in the PSDS is what you want, with 0 to the right of the decimal.

HTH,

Mark

> On 7/9/2013 10:32 PM, John McKee wrote:

There are two vendor supplied programs, written in RPG III. The first
program prepares the environment for the second program.

Originally, intent was that first program would be initiated from a
menu. Now, in addition to that, it also needs to be capable of being
submitted by a scheduled job.

I can clone the first program with a new name and then modify it to
not require a display file. But, second program would also need to be
modified as it checks how it was called.

I see two possibilities here:

1) Create clone of first progra and modify second program to recognize
the validity of the second program.

2) Add a parm to the first program to indicate portions of code should
be bypassed. But, the problem as I see it, is that the existing
invocation of the first program has no provision for a parameter. If
program is called without a parameter, it will fail.

Is there a way to test for a missing parameter with RPG III?

I thought about using the LDA, but that is formatted already. Might
be possible to use it, but unknown at this point.

Any suggestions to deal with this?

John McKee