Skip to Main Content
IBM Power Ideas Portal


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Power Systems products, including IBM i. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas
  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

ADD A NEW IDEA

Languages - RPG

Showing 221

Coding free format line should be possible from column 8 to end of line

If you can use fully free format (**free) then the free-form statements can appear between column 1 and the end of the line. Otherwise, the source is column-limited, and a free-form statement is coded in columns 8-80. I would like this limitation ...
about 4 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 6 Not under consideration

Allow SND-MSG to send a message to a subfile message file.

Allow the SND-MSG command to send a message to a subfile message file. This would allow the developer to use SND-MSG to send a message to a subfile when an error is encountered in a validation routine. It could also be used to send a confirmation ...
over 1 year ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 9 Not under consideration

Allow to sort a subfile as simple as sorting an Array DS

I have written numerous programs to sort subfiles, but if RPG implemetns it it would save code, standarize the code, and make the use of RPG more of a pleasure. Use Case: SORTSFL (mysfl:mycolumn1(*ASC);mycolumn2(*DESC))
over 7 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 8 Not under consideration

Local scope parameter for dow / dou ( perhaps for-each)

I don't expect that RPG will support lambda functions, nor iterators, however it will be easy for users to implement this kind of functionality if a local scopeed loop parameter could be provided by RPG to a user procedure. This will provide a bet...
over 1 year ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 7 Not under consideration

Prefix or Qualified Keyword for Exports and/or Prototypes

Currently exported identifiers (procs, functions, variables, data-structures) need to be unique across an application framework. This is a massive obstacle in modernization efforts. For proper modernization and modern programming approach it is ab...
over 8 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 7 Future consideration

Count recursive calls (all/direct)

Requesting a built in function to recognize if a proc was called recursively with a parameter to recognize if it was called by itself. Ex: dcl-proc chkRecursion;dcl-pi chkRecursion end-pi;count = %recursion();countDirect = %recursion( *on );if cou...
over 3 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 2 Not under consideration

heredoc syntax for large literals

When developing SQLRPG programs, I frequently have to deal with large multiline literal strings for defining SQL statements. I have in fact exceeded the size limit of a string literal in the past. It would be nice to have a HEREDOC syntax for assi...
over 8 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 4 Not under consideration

Allow reserved words as qualified DS subfield names

Allow reserved words to be specified as data structure subfield names. Use Case: The following DS is not allowed because of subfields Read, Update, and Delete, requiring non-standard names for those authorities: DCL-DS ObjectAuthority QUALIFIED; O...
over 3 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 5 Not under consideration

Assign a timestamp to a date/time field without %date() / %time()

When assigning a timestamp to a date field or a time field it shouldn't be necessary to use %DATE() or %TIME() to do this. Use Case: D dateIso1 s D D dateIso2 s D D timeStamp s Z inz(*SYS) C eval dateIso1 = %date( timeStamp ) C eval dateIso2 = tim...
over 4 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 3 Not under consideration

Enable Retrieval of SQL constraint violation error information in RPG program

Current RPG support requires programmers to use IBM i APIs plus considerable coding to determine what constraint has caused an error. For example, when using an SQL insert on table, where a check or foreign key constraint is used, a violation of t...
about 6 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 3 Not under consideration