One of the basic principles of programming is that coding conventions (guidelines and standards) improve the readability of source code and make software maintenance easier. Coding conventions provide the foundation for developing applications that are easy to maintain and modify. This article completes the style guide to coding RPG programs using free-form RPG in an ILE environment started in A Style Guide For Modern RPG And ILE, Part 1.

Older Functions

When using free-form RPG (and nothing but free-form RPG), a lot of the old RPG “functionality” is no longer available (e.g., operation codes such as MOVE, MOVEL, GOTO,

 Recently I gave a brief introduction to the SQL Procedures Language, or SQL PL, a procedural language that works with the DB2 family of database management systems. Today I present the conditional structures, IF and CASE. If you so choose, you will master them in minutes.

But first, I need to clear up one matter. In my previous article, I referred to SQL PL as a proprietary language. Mike Cain, of the DB2 for i Center of Excellence, emailed to correct my error. Mike pointed out that SQL PL is based on SQL/Persistent Stored Modules (SQL/PSM), which is an