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Status Future consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on Nov 2, 2022

RELATED IDEAS

Allow data structures to be extended or decorated

See this idea on ideas.ibm.com

RPG currently allows us to define a data structure with the same layout another with the LIKEDS keyword.

It would be useful to be able to use a similar keyword to define the basic structure, but also to extend the data structure and add additional subfields to the end.

This would allow developers to have a base type that defines an archetype - e.g. a person that is then extended by other specialisations which have additional properties specific to them - e.g. employee, manager, customer..

In the examples below I have used 'extends' as the keyword. 

dcl-ds person_t qualified template;
  firstName char(30);
  surname   char(30);
  dob       date;
  address   likeDs(address_t)
end-ds; 

// The employee_t data structure is a specialisation of the person_t structure, adding some extra fields.
dcl-ds employee_t extends(person_t) template;
  employeeNumber int(10);
  departmentCode char(2);
end-ds;

// The employee_t data structure can itself be extended:
dcl-ds manager_t extends(employee_t) template;
  authorisationLimit packed(15:2);
end-ds;

// The customer_t data structure is another specialisation of person_t, adding some other extra fields
dcl-ds customer_t extends(person_t) template;
  customerNumber   int(10);
  emailAddress     char(128);
  registrationDate date;
end-ds;
Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Oct 3, 2024

    Wish this was available for some prior projects our department had worked on.  Would have eliminated much in the way of duplicate code.  Please push this through on the next release.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Oct 3, 2024

    Absolutely a good idea - this promotes reuse and should absolutely be an enhancement to the language.  I had posted a similar enhancement idea which was closed as a duplicate with this.  Hoping it can make the next release 7.6!

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Nov 9, 2022
    IBM will use this Idea as input to planning, but no commitment is made or implied. This Idea will be updated in the future if IBM implements it. IBM will use votes and comments from others in the community to help prioritize this Idea.

    - IBM Power Systems Development
3 MERGED

Extending a data structure

The goal is to be able to extend a template data structure and be able to add fields to it.
6 months ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG 1 Future consideration

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