Reader Feedback and Insights: Overlooking the Obvious

November 8, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Hey, Ted:

I have been following the SQL tips in Midrange Guru (“SQL to the Rescue!” and “SQL’s One-Row, One-Column Table“) that use a one-row, one-column table to execute SQL functions.

There’s an easier way.

Use the SET statement instead.

The following code is equivalent to the first tip on this subject, which was published in the October 25 issue.

d found           s              1
d field1          s              5u 0 inz(5)
d field2          s              5u 0 inz(15)
d field3          s              5u 0 inz(30)

C/EXEC SQL
C+ set :found =
C+  case when max(:field1, :field2, :field3) > 25

Odds and Ends

November 8, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Dear Readers:

Here, by popular demand, are more “Odds and Ends.” I hope you find something here you like.

— Ted

Question:

I’m trying to read a table by key in a CL program, and I am having trouble. I know there has to be a way to do this, but I keep getting either the first record in the table or an error message that states ‘key not found.’ Can you provide an example of a CL program that reads a file randomly by key?

Answer:

It sounds as if the Receive File (RCVF) command didn’t find a matching

Omitting Parameters in RPG Programs and Modules

November 8, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Hey, Ted:

I have a program that can receive four parameters. The first one is mandatory, and the last three are optional. If I call the program and pass parameters 1, 2, and 4 to it, the %parms built-in function tells me that three parameters were passed. How does the program know which three it is getting? Thanks!

— Doug

You can’t skip a parameter. If you pass three parameters, they are parameters 1, 2, and 3; number 4 will be undefined.

The only way to skip parameter 3 is to specify OPTIONS(*OMIT) in its D spec. The value *OMIT