Re: A new RFE for retrieving a data area description (cross post MIDRANGE-L and WSCI-L)

Cross posted to WDSCI-L and MIDRANGE-L

"WDSCI-L" <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 08/16/2016 01:00:02 PM:

----- Message from Thomas Raddatz <thomas.raddatz@xxxxxx> on Tue, 16
Aug 2016 04:56:08 +0000 -----

To:

"Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client
for System i & iSeries" <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject:

Re: [WDSCI-L] A new RFE for retrieving a data area description

Michael,

Have you seen the QWCRDTAA API? It might be what you are looking
for. The TYPE, LENGTH and DECPOS attributes of the receiver data
structure contain information about the type, length and number of
decimal positions:

* Retrieve Data Area (QWCRDTAA) API
d QWCRDTAA...
d pr extpgm('QWCRDTAA')
d o_rcvVar 65535a options(*varsize)
d i_lenRcvVar 10i 0 const
d i_qDtaAra 20A const
d i_start 10i 0 const
d i_length 10i 0 const
d io_errCode 65535a options(*varsize)
*
* Format of Data Returned (attributes and value)
d rtvDtaAra_t ds qualified template
d bytRet 10i 0
d bytAvl 10i 0
d type 10a
d lib 10a
d length 10i 0
d decPos 10i 0
d value 2000A

You may remove the "value" field of the " rtvDtaAra_t" data
structure if you are not interested in the value of the data area.

Thomas.

Thomas,

Thanks. This is sad. When I first read your message, I thought, "No,
that's how you get the value of the data area. (I've used this API before
but always to retrieve a data area value. It was years ago when you either
wrote a CL or called this API to retrieve a data area value.) Since I've
used it before, my brain dismissed it. I never thought about the fact that
it retrieves the attributes as well. At least not until I looked at the
copy member I use do define the API parameters. then I saw that I had
coded all the information for the attributes as well--like I said, this
was years ago.)

Since I've used it before, I needed someone to get my attention that it
has the features I need. If I have any problems or see any shortcomings,
I'll post back (to MIDRANGE-L). But I believe I'll have to cancel my RFE.

Thanks again,
Michael Quigley
Computer Services
The Way International
www.TheWay.org