How to store the multiple positions of a character in a string inside an array in free format RPGLE?

Question

In standard RPGLE, my code looks like this. This statement stores the positions of the commas in Data in ComArr array.

C     ','           Scan      Data          ComArr

I tried doing it in free format like this. But all the indices of ComArr array is loaded with the first position of comma in Data. This is because %Scan returns only one position and upon saving it to an array ends up loading the whole array with a single value.

ComArr = %Scan(',':Data) ;

Is there any other method to process SCAN in free format RPGLE like it does in C spec? Basically I want to split the string separated by a delimiter.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 11 '17 at 14:19

One possibility is to keep the C-spec as-is. If the code block needs an array of delimiter positions, and one line of code already does that, put a comment above the fixed-format spec describing what it does and leave it in there.

If /free is required and you don't want to replace the entire block of code, you will need to roll your own loop to build the array of delimiters.

I don't personally convert from fixed to /free unless I am re-writing the block of code to be functionally different. That is, I would almost certainly write a different algorithm in /free than I would have written in fixed. So the entire process of building an array of delimiter positions and then splitting the string based on that array is not something I would do in /free.

I would write a new sub-procedure that returns an array of strings given one delimited input string. The code inside that sub-procedure would make one pass through the input, looking for delimiters with %scan(), and for each one found, split the substring into the next available output array element. There's no need for an array of delimiter positions with this sort of algorithm.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 20 '17 at 10:17

This is probably a little late, but if anyone else needs to split a string by a given delimeter, this code should do what you need.

If you assign a value to an array using wildcard eval array(*) = ..., it applies to every element of the array.

Declare the prototype in your source:

D split           pr          1024a   varying                     
D  string                    65535a   varying const options(*varsize)
D  delims                       50a   varying const               
D  pos                          10i 0

Declare a couple of variables. This assumes your input string is 1000 characters and each separated item is 10 characters maximum:

D idx             s             10i 0
D list            s           1000a
D splitAry        s             10a   dim(100)

This is how you split the string. This tells the routine your delimeter is a comma:

c                   eval      idx = 0                          
c                   eval      splitAry(*) = split(list:',':idx)

Define the procedure that does the work:

 *-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 * split - Split delimited string                                      
 *-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Psplit            b                   export                           
D split           pi          1024a   varying                          
D  iString                   65535a   varying const options(*varsize)  
D  iDelims                      50a   varying const                    
D  iPos                         10i 0                                  
 *                                                                     
D result          s           1024a   varying                          
D start           s             10i 0                                  
D char            s              1a                                    
 *-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
c                   eval      start = iPos + 1                         
c                   eval      %len(result) = 0                         
 *                                                                     
c                   for       iPos = start to %len(iString)            
c                   eval      char = %subst(iString:iPos:1)            
c                   if        %check(iDelims:char) = 1                 
c                   eval      result = result + char                   
c                   else                                               
c                   leave                                              
c                   endif                                              
c                   endfor                                             
 *                                                                     
c                   return    result                                   
Psplit            e

Don't forget to add dftactgrp(*no) to your H spec if you're defining and using this in the same module!

How to store the multiple positions of a character in a string inside an array in free format RPGLE?

2 Answers2