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Status Future consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on Mar 28, 2024

RELATED IDEAS

Add bit identifiers to DCL-DS subfields in RPG IV

I'd like to have the ability to declare a bit field in an RPG IV data structure.

In the C language, you might have a structure like this:

struct _Gen_IOP_T {
                             /*Gen IOP breakdown structure for MATMATR*/
       char          Bus;                /* Bus Number                */
       int           Card    : 4;        /* Card Number               */
       int           Board   : 4;        /* Board Number              */
    } _Gen_IOP_T;

And I'd like to do the same in RPG IV like this:

    Dcl-Ds Gen_IOP_T;
       Bus Char(1);
       Card Int(10:4);
       Board Int(10:4);
     End-Ds;

     

The 2nd parameter of the int() and char() types could be the bit size.

Then in Calcs, I could just compare it to a value like 1, 2, 3, etc. instead of using the %BITAND or whatever.

It also allow us to part the MIH includes to RPG IV dcl-ds much more easily.

 

Idea priority High
  • Admin
    Carmelita Ruvalcaba Cevallos
    Reply
    |     Sep 24, 2024

    The CAAC has reviewed this IBM Idea and recommends that IBM view this as a high priority Idea that is important to be addressed.

    This corresponds to the system API definitions. This is an expected feature of all modern languages.

    Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual IBM Ideas on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your Idea.

    For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

    Carmelita Ruvalcaba - CAAC Program Manager

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     May 3, 2024
    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, the suggested syntax of using the INT and CHAR keywords is unlikely to be used. For the INT keyword, the second parameter represents the number of decimal positions.

    It is more likely that a new "BIT" data-type keyword would be used. A possible implementation would be a BIT keyword: BIT(n) or BIT(*UNS:n), where n is the number of bits and the underlying data-type for the bit-field would be unsigned integer. Or BIT(*INT: n), where the underlying data-type is signed integer.

    It is unlikely that BIT(*CHAR:n) would be supported. However, if there is a use case for a character-type bit-field, please post an example of how that would be useful in the comments for this Idea.

    -IBM Power Systems Development

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