RE: Varying length subfield contains blanks instead of length 0 ?

My original attempt had the inz on the subfields. Buck suggested I initialize the DS, so I tried that instead. Still crashed.

d ParmsIn ds qualified
d Phone# 10s 0 inz
d Domain 16a varying
d Method 16a varying
d keysAndValues...
d likeds(Pairs) dim(32)

d Pairs ds qualified inz <===
d Key 32a varying
d Value 32a varying

-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Stuart Rowe
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2014 1:58 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: Varying length subfield contains blanks instead of length
0 ?

Did you specify the INZ keyword on the data structure or any subfields?

From the RPGLE reference:

Note: When the INZ parameter is not specified: Definition-Specification
Keywords
- Static standalone fields and subfields of initialized data
structures are initialized to their RPG default initial values (for
example, blanks for character, 0 for numeric).
- Subfields of uninitialized data structures (INZ not specified on
the definition specification for the data structure) are initialized to
blanks (regardless of their data type).



On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 12:47 PM, Koester, Michael <mkoester@data-
east.com>wrote:

I'm having trouble understanding why a subfield of a data structure
does not have the length designation (it crashes when I test with
"when
%len(datastructure(x).subfield) = 0;" ).
I get the RNX0115 Length of varying length variable is out of range.
It clearly is out of range, because the value of the subfield is set
to all blanks, and the length bytes show x'4040'.

My question is why the subfield is initiated to all blanks, including
the length bytes, instead of to all x'00', like any other respectable
varying length field should have?

Examining in SEP debug showing hex, I could see that the subfields
with non-blank values did have proper length bytes, but they did have
x'40' on all bytes that were beyond that length -- not x'00'.

I see in the archives that there was a lengthy discussion in Feb 2013
about how a varying length subfield operates somewhat differently,

but

no mention of this particular nuance.

Was not able to find anything in the docs about why a subfield

defined

as varying would get loaded with blanks.

Looks like testing for an "empty" varying subfield will need to be

"if

datastucture(x).subfield = *blanks" instead of testing its length.
Let me know if there's a better alternative.


Michael Koester
Programmer/Analyst

DataEast

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