- Subscribe to AS400 ibmi clleWhen creating messages in message files, a substitution variable of type *DEC can be used. However, it is not trivial to work with these types in CLLE programs.
The code snippet on the left shows how a decimal variable in CL can be transformed to the *DEC counterpart in message fields.
The message data expects a packed field. However, the message data field itself can also contain other fields like object name and other character fields. So how do we get a packed field into a character field in CL?
You will find that there is no way to convert a decimal CL field into a character field. All conversions like %DEC, %CHAR end up formatting the field in an unusable format for our purpose.
The trick is to map the CL decimal to a character field.
dcl &clDec *dec (5 0) value(0)
dcl &msgDec *char stg(*defined) len(3) defvar(&clDec)The packed decimal field only uses 3 bytes of memory. Consider the value 12345. For a decimal CL field, this is stored in memory like this:
byte1 byte2 byte3
12 34 5FThe last half byte is F (1111) for positive and D (1101) for negative values.*
This is the reason why the &msgDec field is 3 bytes. By redefining the storage (memory location) of the &clDec var, we have two variables that point to the same memory location. By changing &clDec, e.g., by passing it as a parameter to an RPG program, the &msgDec is modified by (re)definition. This value of &msgDec is exactly what the message expects.
Finally, I know how to work with correctly formatted numbers in messages.
Cheers, Wim
* Decimal field lengths should preferably be uneven. It is not the half-byte memory waste I'm worried about but the programming ethics.
pgm
dcl &clDec *dec (5 0) value(0)
dcl &msgDec *char stg(*defined) len(3) defvar(&clDec)
dcl &msgDta *char 100
dltmsgf qtemp/msgf
monmsg cpf0000
crtmsgf qtemp/msgf
ADDMSGD MSG0001 MSGF(QTEMP/MSGF) MSG('&1 &2') FMT((*char 6) (*DEC 5))
chgvar %sst(&msgdta 1 6) 'Number'
chgvar %sst(&msgdta 7 3) &msgDec
SNDPGMMSG MSGID(MSG0001) MSGF(QTEMP/MSGF) MSGDTA(&msgDta) TOPGMQ(*EXT)
chgvar &clDec 100
chgvar %sst(&msgdta 7 3) &msgDec
SNDPGMMSG MSGID(MSG0001) MSGF(QTEMP/MSGF) MSGDTA(&msgDta) TOPGMQ(*EXT)
chgvar &clDec 1234
chgvar %sst(&msgdta 7 3) &msgDec
SNDPGMMSG MSGID(MSG0001) MSGF(QTEMP/MSGF) MSGDTA(&msgDta) TOPGMQ(*EXT)
endpgm
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