RE: Why you shouldn't be afraid to use VARCHAR in RPGLE

Sorry, I re-read the original description from Google. This does not do what you wanted.

"What it does
Essentially, the line of code is a verbose way of setting boolVal based on whether b is zero or not, while simultaneously changing the value of a:
If b is 0: a becomes 1, and boolVal becomes 1.
If b is non-zero: a becomes 0, and boolVal becomes 0."


It seems to me that RPG does most of what you are asking ...
a = (b = 0);

So:
a = 1 when B is 0.
a = 0 when B Is not 0.

And if you need a boolval set then add:
a = (b = 0);
boolval = a;




-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Paul Therrien via RPG400-L
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2025 5:11 PM
To: RPG programming on IBM i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Javier Sanchez <javiersanchezbarquero@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Paul Therrien <ptherrien@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Why you shouldn't be afraid to use VARCHAR in RPGLE


This works in RPG... doesn't this do what you are asking for?
Where iResult is an indicator.
iResult will be either on or off based on whether x = y.

iresult = ( x = y);

(Although it won’t set 'x' = to 'y').





-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Infodorado InfoDorado via RPG400-L
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2025 4:54 PM
To: RPG programming on IBM i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Javier Sanchez <javiersanchezbarquero@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Infodorado InfoDorado <infodorado@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Why you shouldn't be afraid to use VARCHAR in RPGLE

About that: "boolVal = (a = b ? 0: 1);"

Could that be implemented by "boolVal = (a = b)"?
Am I missing something in the C-like syntax? It's been a long time since I looked at C.

--Alan Cassidy

On 12/11/2025 9:14 AM EST Javier Sanchez <javiersanchezbarquero@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

BTW, I have wondered a lot why you guys have not yet implemented the
C-like expression as:
boolVal = (a = b ? 0: 1);
This is not only necessary for modern RPG but it should have been
provided long time ago! :-) JS

El mié, 10 dic 2025 a las 22:04, Barbara Morris (<bmorris@xxxxxxxxxx>)
escribió:

On 2025-12-10 12:25 p.m., James H. H. Lampert via RPG400-L wrote:

On 12/10/25 4:06 AM, Infodorado InfoDorado via RPG400-L wrote:

The RPG compiler is a single-pass compiler

No, it can't be pure single-pass. If it were, then a program in
which a variable is NOT defined in a D-spec, nor in the first
C-spec in which it appears, would not compile, much less run. And
it's trivially simple to construct an example of this (it took me
about 2 minutes), and it compiles and runs just fine. I'd quote
the source here, but it would likely be mangled beyond recognition.

It's a single pass through the source but it gathers information
that it can use multiple times.

The compiler usually allows forward-referencing, so you can code
LIKE(x) where x is defined later.

But for free-form definitions, the compiler requires the parameter
for the data-type keywords to be defined before the keyword is seen.

dcl-s x char(con1); // bad, con1 not defined yet
dcl-c con1 5;
dcl-s y char(con1); // ok, con1 is defined

Where it becomes extra fun is when you have a data structure that
LOOKS defined.

dcl-ds ds1;
subf char(10);
end-ds;
dcl-s x char(%size(ds1)); // %size(ds1) is not defined. WHAT???

RPG allows you to define the length of a data structure later,
either due to being on an I spec, possible an externally-described I
spec, or on a C spec.

C MOVE *blanks ds1 50

Almost certainly wrong columns, but you get what I mean. I'm
defining
DS1 to have a length of 50 here, not the length of 10 that it looked
like it should have. Shenanigans? Yep, but upward-compatible R Us.

We have a H-spec/CTL-OPT keyword for that: DLCOPT(*NOCHGDSLEN). With
that keyword, the compiler doesn't allow you to change the length of
the data structure like that, so it's considered defined as soon as
all the subfields are defined.

--
Barbara

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