Handling Oversized Character Values Gracefully
by Ted Holt

The FmtNum subprocedure has been very useful to me in dealing with oversized numbers. When I use FmtNum in a report program, it is obvious to anyone when a number has gotten too large for its allotted space. I suppose it was only a matter of time until I would need to show that a character value is too large for the space I had allowed for it. While chopping off the end of many character fields, such as customer names and inventory item descriptions, is no big deal, chopping of the end of others does present a problem. READ MORE >

WDSc's Outline View is Handy
Hey, Ted:

For developers using Websphere Development Studio Client (WDSc), here is a tip that has been worth its weight in gold to me. The outline view is a very powerful tool. It can be enhanced even more than the default way it is loaded. For example, in the default mode the outline shows the files that are defined, the record format, and all the fields. Outline view can also show the source line numbers where the fields, indicators, subroutines, etc. are accessed. Clicking on a line number in the Outline view takes you to that line in the LPEX editor. This can speed analysis and coding. READ MORE >