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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on Jun 11, 2024

RELATED IDEAS

For a procedure returning a varchar, writing "return *blank;" should be the same as writing "return '';"

Writing:

dcl-s result varchar(500);

dcl-proc GetErrorMessage;
dcl-pi *n varchar(500);
end-pi;

return *blank;
end-proc;

result = GetErrorMessage();

//=> result = '[500 times space character]'

is not the same as writing:

dcl-s result varchar(500);

dcl-proc GetErrorMessage;
dcl-pi *n varchar(500);
end-pi;

return '';
end-proc;

result = GetErrorMessage();

//=> result = '';

This contradicts the documentation https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.5?topic=constants-figurative

Personally, I would expect:

*blank => result = ' '; //Meaning one only space character

*blanks => '[500 times empty character]'; //Meaning filling all the variable with space characters

another constant like for example *empty => result = ''; //Meaning no space character at all

Idea priority Low
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jul 16, 2024
    IBM does not intend to provide a solution to this Idea at this time, so it is being closed.

    It is not possible to change the meaning of returning *BLANK, even to have it return a single blank. The compiler treats both *BLANK and *BLANKS to mean "all blanks". Like all the figurative constants, the implied length of a figurative constant is the same as that of the associated field (or the associated return value in the case of the RETURN operation).

    Please open another Idea to request a new special value such as *EMPTY to mean the empty literal to be used with character, UCS-2 or graphic data.

    - IBM Power Systems Development
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jul 16, 2024

    Hello.

    I do not agree on the title for this idea - *blank and '' is not the same, nor does the documentation state this.

    I understand your expectation of *blank => result = ' ', but *BLANK and *BLANKS are interchangable, they come from the days of only fixed length character variables. Changing this behaviour would break many programs after a recompile!

    A new constant like *empty (or *entrystring) would make sense, it can be difficult to spot the difference between '' and '<space>' when glancing source code. Here a new constant would make the code more readable.


    Best regards

    Christian Jorgensen

    CEAC member

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