RE: %str() use discouraged?

Thanks

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Klement [mailto:rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2020 5:59 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: %str() use discouraged?

Justin,

Your code is absolutely right.  getenv() returns a pointer to a null-terminated string, and %str() converts that to an RPG VARCHAR.

Francois' code doesn't make any sense and won't compile.  The first parameter to %STR() needs to be a pointer, not a string literal.  Plus,
getenv() returns a pointer, but %STR() returns a string -- you can't compare a pointer to a string in RPG.

I do have a suggestion for you, though...   getenv() will return *NULL if the variable isn't found, and %STR() will have a problem with that *NULL value.  So unless you're certain that 'ENV_VAR' will always be found, you should write your code like this:

dcl-s varp pointer;

varp = getenv('ENV_VAR');
if varp<>*null and %str(varp) = 'Literal value here';

That way, there won't be any error if the variable isn't found.   Or, if you prefer the coding style you've shown us, you could put that style in a monitor block.

-SK