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Search Primary links Forums Archives Code Blogs Podcasts Webcasts e-Learning Guides Newsletters About Us Contact Us About the Network Tech Editor Profiles Editorial Calendar Writers Kit Advertise Join Network Categories RPG Programming Other Languages Application Development Database/SQL Availability Security Systems Management Networking IT Mgmt/Careers Site Links Solutions Store Events UK Centre Jobs System iPortal Home Content Passing File Names to RPG IV Article ID: 57094Posted August 20th, 2008 in RPG Programming By:Bob Cozzi Passing the name of a file to be used by your RPG program has been around for de cades. The typical approach has been to create a parameter (see Qualified Parame ters in Tuesday Tips video) to the program and then issue either an OVRDBF comma nd in CL or via QCMDEXC in RPG itself. But since V5R1 of i5/OS (now IBM "i"), IB M has included the EXTFILE keyword. This keyword eliminates most but certainly n ot all of the reasons we use overrides. The four most popular reasons to use overrides are: Overriding to a different library name Overriding to a different member name Changing the Sequential Only Processing to SEQONLY(*YES) with a number of record s And sadly, setting the level-check to LVLCHK(*NO) Of these four, the first two no longer require an override. So if you only need to override the library or member name or even the file name itself, you are no longer required to issue an override; RPG IV can handle redirection ("overriding ") for you, here's how.

By now you may have read my article on using the EXTFILE and EXTMBR keywords on the File Description specification and know that you can add this keyword to you r files to identify, at runtime, the file you want to open. But there's more to it. You can also pass the file name to the program as a parameter and then proce ss that file instead of the one you have declared. For example, if you have a user-written CL command that accepts a qualified file name, it would contain the following Command Definition statements and probably a few others as well. CMD PROMPT('Example QUAL Parm Command') /* Command processing program is: DSPFILE */ PARM KWD(FILE) TYPE(MYQUAL) PROMPT('File') MYQUAL: QUAL TYPE(*NAME) EXPR(*YES) QUAL TYPE(*NAME) DFT(*LIBL) EXPR(*YES) + PROMPT('Library') This CL command allows the user (who might be an end user or a CL programmer) to specify the file to be used by the associated program. This file is passed to t he Command Processing Program (CPP) as a 20-position field. The first 10 bytes c ontain the file name, and the second 10 bytes contain the library name. To get this file into olves a little bit of gram. I prefer to use *ENTRY/PLIST syntax, parameter: D DSPFile D file your RPG IV program and pass it to the EXTFILE keyword inv effort. First you have to set up the parameter in your pro the contemporary style of input parameters over the legacy but either one works. Here's the declaration of the input PR 20A EXTPGM('DSPFILE') DSPFILE:

D DSPFile PI D file 20A These statements effectively replace the *ENTRY/PLIST statement of traditional R PG code. Yes, in RPG IV, you have to include both a prototype and the parameter interface statements. I've chosen the simplified declaration here, a 20-position character value. Normally I would be a bit more normalized and use the LIKEDS k eyword with a data structure that already has the file and library subfields def ined, but I want to simply things as much as possible for this example. The value from the DSPFILE command is passed in the following format: Pos-> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Value f i l e n a m e l i b r a r y Positions 1 to 10 contain the file name; positions 11 to 20 contain the library name. Herein lies the problem --the EXTFILE keyword accepts only 21-position val ues in a CL-style qualified syntax, for example: library/file The extra byte holds the forward slash qualifier. To convert this to what the EXTFILE expects, we have to use simple RPG IV manipu lation. One way to do this conversion is as follows: D myFile S 21A

/free myFile = %trimR(%subst(file:11:10)) + '/' + %trimR(%subst(file:1:10));Now that we have the file back in t

he format that the end user originally type it in as, we can pass it on to the E XTFILE keyword. FCUSTMAST IF D DSPFile D file D DSPFile D file D myFile E PR 20A PI 20A S 21A K DISK EXTFILE(myFile) EXTPGM('DSPFILE')

/free myFile = %trimR(%subst(file:11:10)) + '/' + %trimR(%subst(file:1:10)); In this example, I've added the File spec and included the EXTFILE(myFile) keywo rd. MYFILE is the 21-position character field I've declared down on the D- specs to hold the actual file I want to open. There's a big problem with this, however. The file CUSTMAST is going to be opene d by the RPG cycle before your Calc specs are performed. Consequently, the MYFIL E field is going to contain blanks when CUSTMAST is open. Yes this creates a pro blem. RPG TnT: 101 Dynamic Tips 'n Techniques with RPG IV by Bob Cozzi Bob Cozzi's latest book contains 300 pages with 101 example RPG IV Tips and Tec hniques for everyday programming, from date calculations, to regular expression searches, to using APIs. Cozzi wrote down every cool technique he's found over t he years, updated them, and consolidated them into this great desktop companion -- and it includes full example source code. Order your copy today. The Solution To avoid having the CUSTMAST file's open cause a runtime error, you have to incl ude the USROPN (User Controlled Open) keyword. This keyword causes the RPG cycle to skip your file when it goes into its Open-All-Files routine. But it also doe s what it says, puts the burden of opening the file on you. So now we have to include the OPEN opcode to open the file. We open the file nam e specified on the File spec, not the file we've passed to the program, so the f ollowing operation will do just fine: open CUSTMAST; The OPEN must occur after you populate the MYFILE field and before you attempt t o use the file, so a good place for it would be right after our concatenation ro utine, as follows: FCUSTMAST IF D DSPFile D file D DSPFile D file D myFile E PR 20A PI 20A S 21A K DISK EXTFILE(myFile) EXTPGM('DSPFILE')

/free myFile = %trimR(%subst(file:11:10)) + '/' + %trimR(%subst(file:1:10));

open custmast; if %open(custmast); // Everything worked!!! // we are happy. endif; Alternatively, a lot of programmers (myself included) prefer to put these routin es inside the *INZSR subroutine. Of course, that doesn't work in the secondary m odules of a multi-module program; however, for the main module it works just fin e. A couple of final thoughts on EXTFILE: The field used by EXTFILE must contain a valid qualified file name before the fi le is open by the program. The file open with EXTFILE is rerouted not overridden. This means the file is op en directly and a "hidden override" is not applied. I'm surprised to hear a numb er of seasoned programmers state that EXTFILE overrides the file -- it does not. To prove this, start a program that opens a file with the EXTFILE keyword. Then interrupt the job and use DSPJOB or WRKJOB and select the Display Overrides men u option. You will not see the file name declared on the File spec's listed in t he files that have overrides unless, of course, you also overrode that file for other reasons. Remember to consider the EXTMBR keyword, which does the same thing except for me mber names. In fact, you can even close your file, change the member name on EXT MBR, and then re-open it to the new member to do multi-member processing. Great for those utility-style applications. One more thing, EXTMBR also accepts *ALL, *FIRST, and *LAST. Bob Cozzi is the author of the popular "RPG TnT: 101 Dynamic Tips 'n Techniques with RPG IV" and is host of RPG World Live, a live 2-hours video podcast for Sys tem i Developers and Managers. It is aired live on Friday's from 10:00 AM to Noo n central time (15:00 GMT) on ustream.tv and on RPGWorld.com. Bob also produces RPG World, the most popular RPG IV developer conference of the year. Visit RPGWo rld.com for details on the dates and location of the 2009 RPG World Conference. Bookmark/Search this post with: Login to post comments Email this page Printer-friendly version Relate d Links Skipping Input Fields During Debug Boolean Operations in RPG IV FTP Send File: Source Code Review FTP Send File Extend RPG with SQL ProVIP Sponsors ProVIP Sponsors Featured LinksSponsored Links Footer Site Links Home Subscribe Now Advertise Contact Us Feedback Terms & Conditions Trademarks P rivacy Policy Copyright Penton Media