RE: Does the CLEAR operation on an input-only file do anything?

And I would be wrong.

-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Taylor
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 4:45 PM
To: 'RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)' <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Does the CLEAR operation on an input-only file do anything?

I'd expect that to reset all of the fields in that records.


-----Original Message-----
From: MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 2:52 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Does the CLEAR operation on an input-only file do anything?

I've been working with what I would consider a bug in a vendor supplied program. They're processing a file conditioned on an optional field in a secondary file. The secondary file is specified as input-only, externally described, and keyed. For each record in the primary file, they do a chain to the secondary (input-only) file. Then the code is something like:

---------------

chain (keys) secondary-record;
if not %found;
clear secondary-record;
endif;

---------------

In the ILE RPG Reference Manual under Initialization Operations, it reads:

"When these operation codes are applied to record formats, only fields which are output are affected (if factor 2 is blank) or all fields (if factor 2 is *ALL)."

Also in the manual under "Clearing Record Formats" and the CLEAR operation
code:

if *ALL is not specified, only those fields with a usage of output or both are affected. All field-conditioning indicators of the record format are affected by the operation.

So am I correct in getting back to the vendor and telling them they aren't coding the CLEAR incorrectly? i.e., It should be coded:

clear *all secondary-record;

Thanks,
Michael Quigley
Computer Services
The Way International
(419) 753-1222