Re: Handling a missing parameter in RPG III

[Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

RPG III is getting pretty old.  If the following is not relevant to RPG 
III, please excuse my losing track of when what happened & where.

A third choice might be to mark the display file as UC in the F-spec at 
columns 71-72.  Then, check the programs' external switches.  Find one 
not being used, and use that as your marker in place of a second parm.

Lets say, for discussion, that you find U7 is unused in your 
application.  Set on U7 in your new scheduled run, and then in Program 
1, if U7 is _NOT_ on, open the display file.  Use NU7 to condition your 
display file programs.  That should take care of Program 1. Program 2 
can use U7 to decide if it was called old-way or new-way.



On 7/9/2013 9:32 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