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

Allow overloaded procedures to return different data types

Allow overloaded procedure prototypes to return different data type Example: dcl-pr proc_char varchar(100); parm1 varchar(100) const;end-pr; dcl-pr proc_int int(10); parm1 int(10) const;end-pr; dcl-pr proc like(*prototype) overload(proc_int:proc_c...
5 months ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Not under consideration

Defaults for Dcl-pi;

Parameters for programs and procedures are declared with Dcl-pi. Today it requires to to give the name or *N. But for programs and procedures that does not return a value - it would be appreciated if that was not required and could default to *N a...
almost 4 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Future consideration

RPG: Do not send RNF7031 (variable not referenced) for fields in template ds

For data consistency we use our reference file to define internal fields like so: dcl-ds omsref ext template end-ds ; dcl-s myObject like ( objc ); The reference file contains a boatload of fields. Because we do not use the majority of these field...
about 1 year ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Future consideration

Allow to define a data structure based on a SQL table function

When declaring a data structure, allow using the keyword extname to read the fields defined in the RETURNS TABLE block of an UDF. dcl-ds genericDsTemplate extname('MYLIB/MY_SQL_TF':*output) qualified template alias end-ds; That would guaranty a 10...
almost 2 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Under review

Enhance %char %BIF to add %EDITC functionality %CHAR(mynumber:*NOZEROSUPPRES|*ZEROSUPPRESS)

If we have a numeric field and want to put it in a CHAR field it will show the leading zeros: Assuming myNumber is 7,0 numeric and myAlpha is 7 alpha >> myAlpha = %char(myNumber); myAlpha = '123____' to keep the leading zeros we have to use ...
over 5 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Not under consideration

Provide namespace for exports

As IBM increasingly embraces open source, and third party libraries, it is important to be able to distinguish between like named procedures from different libraries. Please provide a way to namespace service program imports and exports to improve...
about 9 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Not under consideration

Add more functionality to *VAR and *AUTO arrays

I really love the new *AUTO and *VAR arrays, I use them quite often. I would really like more functionality to be added, like the methods available for JavaScript arrays. Some examples assuming an Array "A20" with dim(*auto:20) : I gather a set of...
about 1 year ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Not under consideration

Don't incl Hidden fields on DS defined based on external name

When a data structure is defined based on a table with hidden fields the compiler shouldn't include hidden fields in the structure. Now option available to exclude these on the definition Use Case: When defining a data structure based on an table ...
over 5 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Future consideration

RPG - New BIF for comparing data structures

Based on this discussion: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=81260576-dab9-4955-b19b-a2c4b4130cd3&ps=25 Would like a BIF to compare corresponding fields in data structures. This would be a field-by-field comparis...
over 8 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Future consideration

Provide a CTL-OPT keyword to prohibit or issue a compiler warning when $ or @ are used in Variable or Procedure names

The use of $ and @ in variable names and procedure names in RPG IV hasn't been recommend in nearly 30 years. Yet we still see some legacy developers using those symbols for some reason. I'd like to see a compiler option or CTL-OPT keyword and eith...
over 2 years ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Future consideration