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).
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:
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 an idea.
Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.
Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.
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.
Support for varying-dimension arrays is available with the 7.4 release of the ILE RPG compiler.
There are two types of varying-dimension arrays:
1. An array defined with DIM(*VAR:maxElems) where the RPG programmer must explicitly set the number of array elements (to a greater or smaller number) using %ELEM.
2. An array defined with DIM(*AUTO:maxElems) where the number of elements in the array will automatically be increased if an assignment is made to an element greater than the current number of elements in the erray. The RPG programmer can also explicitly set the number of elements in the array (to a greater or smaller number), using %ELEM. For an array defined with DIM(*AUTO), the RPG programmer can use *NEXT as the index for an assignment to a DIM(*AUTO) array. The number of elements will increase by one, and the value will be assigned to the new element.
For more information, see the "Varying-dimension arrays" section in the 7.4 version of the ILE RPG Reference. https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_74/rzasd/vardimarray.htm.
Note that this enhancement does not include all the features requested by this RFE:
- The RPG programmer must define the maximum number of elements in the array
- There is no support for inserting elements at a given position
- There is no support for deleting elements at a given position
Additional RFE's must be created to address the requested features that were not provided by this enhancement.
IBM agrees with the request and a solution appears to be desirable and feasible. IBM intends to provide a solution. However, IBM's plans may change and no commitment is made that a solution will be provided.
Note that if this feature is implemented, the requested features of inserting or deleting elements at a given position will not be provided.
The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a medium priority requirement that should be addressed.
We don't know how much effort it would be to implement, but it would be a very useful "nice to have".
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 RFEs on the broader IBM i community, and has therefore reviewed your RFE.
For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac
For more details about CAAC's role with RFEs, see http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/i-Can/May-2017/COMMON-Americas-Advisory-Council-%28CAAC%29-and-RFEs/
Dawn May - CAAC Program Manager
IBM will use this request as input to planning but no commitment is made or implied. This request 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 request.
This functionality should also apply to nested arrays. So that the nested array could also be *dynamic.
IBM has received the requirement and is evaluating it. IBM will provide a response after evaluation is complete.
Reply to SRinStL314's comment of 18 Jul 2016: I don't think RPG will have the notion of a deleted element in an array. So I think this could only work if adding a new entry at position 6 would push current elements 6+ down. And removing element 6 would push elements 7+ up. If the array is already full, attempting to add a new element anywhere in the array would cause an exception.
How should your dynamic array function if you add a data element *Before/*After an index entry and an entry already exists there? For example, I have a dynamic list of 10 elements that I'll be populating and have filled all of them. I then want to add an element after position 6. Should the process throw an error because the entry already exists? Should the process replace the existing entry? Should the process extend the array, pushing all elements down the stack? Or are you expecting those should be different options based on keywords provided within the definition? If you have to decide those up front, how do you handle the boundaries and limitations within the "dynamic" function?
Creating a new RFE based on Community RFE #90712 in product IBM i.