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5
VOTE
Not supported for the current status
Status Functionality already exists
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on Apr 28, 2026

RELATED IDEAS

Merged idea
This idea has been merged into another idea. To comment or vote on this idea, please visit IBMI-I-4167 %repeat as a BIF in RPGLE.

Provide a %BLANKS(n) built-in function that accepts a number of blanks parameter Merged

Please consider adding %BLANKS(n) to RPGIV.

When building strings and embedded blanks, it is sometimes necessary to have more than 1 blank. The benefit of a %BLANKS(n) function is that we would easily code string creation with the desired number of blanks between arguments. In addition, re-formatting the code as well as converting from fixed format would be much easier.

 target = %TRIMR(CITY) + ',' + %BLANKS() + %TrimR(STATE) + %Blanks(2)  + PostalCode;

Thank you.

Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    May 2, 2026

    Okay, sounds good. Thanks.

    Reply
  • Guest
    Apr 28, 2026
    Your request is a duplicate of IBMI-I-4167 which suggests a more general %REPEAT built-in function.
    https://ibm-power-systems.ideas.ibm.com/ideas/IBMI-I-4167.

    While there is a comment in that Idea saying that *BLANKS should not be supported as a parameter for %REPEAT, it is likely that *BLANK and *BLANKS would be allowed since it can be difficult to interpret the literal ' '.

    - IBM Power Systems Development
    Reply

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