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 Subscribe
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

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

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

By clicking the "Post Comment" or "Submit Idea" button, you are agreeing to the IBM Ideas Portal Terms of Use.
Do not place IBM confidential, company confidential, or personal information into any field.