RE: Declaring an external printer file

Sounds like a very good habit to get into.
I'm adding it to my list of good habits.

-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Daniel Gross
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 12:15 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Declaring an external printer file

I constantly use ON-EXIT - it's like a "finally" clause in Java - it is ALWAYS executed - even if someone kills your job with *IMMED - the ON-EXIT gets executed - you cannot stop it.

So closing files or cursors, releasing allocated memory, diagnostic info (e.g. to the joblog) - it's quite versatile.

If you declare a Boolean variable, you can even see, if your procedure ended normal or not.

dcl-s isAbnormalEnd ind inz;
...
on-exit isAbnormalEnd;
if isAbnormalEnd;
// procedure ended abnormally
endif;

Nearly every procedure I write has an ON-EXIT section.

HTH
Daniel

Am 19.08.2025 um 18:03 schrieb Charles Wilt <charles.wilt@xxxxxxxxx>:

?Interesting...

Never thought of that trick...

Charles

On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 9:58 AM Daniel Gross <daniel@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Greg,

the compiler doesn't generate I-specs for files defined in a
sub-procedure.

So either define the file IN the sub-procedure and always use data
structures for all output statements.

Or define the file globally with USROPN - let the compiler generate
global I-specs - use the file like normal - and just only open and
close it inside the procedure.

Either way, I recommend closing the file in the ON-EXIT section like that:

on-exit;
if %open(...);
close ...;
endif;

This way, the file always gets correctly closed - even if the
procedure ends abnormally.

HTH
Daniel

Am 19.08.2025 um 17:31 schrieb Greg Wilburn <

gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

?I would like to declare a printer file in a sub procedure... but I

can't seem to get the program to compile.

If I move it to the program level, it compiles just fine.

When the DCL-F is in the sub procedure, I get RNF7274: A result data

structure is required for I/O operations to file MYPRTF

The goal is to only open the externally described printer file when
that

particular sub proc is called, and close it when the procedure is finished.

TIA
Greg

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