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Status Future consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on Mar 7, 2024

RELATED IDEAS

Allow %right, %left, and %subdt to left of assignment operator =

%subst is allowed on the left of an assignment operator, in order to change a substring.

It would be nice if %left, %right, and %subdt could do the same.


Instead of:

if  (%len(%trimr(XREF)) > %len(F1XREF));
  %subst(F1XREF:(%len(F1XREF) - 2)) = '...';
endif;

I could code

if  (%len(%trimr(XREF)) > %len(F1XREF));
  %right(F1XREF:3) = '...';
endif;


Would be nice if %subdt could be used similarly to assign a part of a date or time:
%subdt(MyDateField: *d) = 01;

Idea priority Low
  • Guest
    Apr 28, 2026
    Regarding the support for %LEFT and %RIGHT as the target for an assignment, that aspect is also accepted.

    However, there is a restriction for %SUBST as the target of an assignment that the length operand is not supported in CHARCOUNT NATURAL mode. That same restriction would be applied to %LEFT and %RIGHT: They would not be allowed as the target of an assignment in CHARCOUNT NATURAL mode.

    - IBM Power Systems Development
    Reply
  • Guest
    Jun 10, 2024
    Regarding the aspect of this Idea to support %SUBDT on the left-hand-side of an assignment, 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.

    However, it is unlikely that %LEFT and %RIGHT would be supported on the left-hand-side of an assignment.

    -IBM Power Systems Development
    Reply
4 MERGED

Allow %LEFT built-in function to be used on the left-side of the assignment statement

Merged
When migrating to free format RPG IV, converting some operations like MOVEL and CAT need to be converted to what amounts to a Substring operation for the target variable. That means aggravating calculations to determine the length argument for %SU...
about 2 months ago in IBM i / Languages - RPG Future consideration

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