Concat message into one string

[dcutaia]

I need to create a message with four variables.
Variable 1: ITEM A 12
Variable 2: TAB P 5 0
Variable 3: Start Date A 10
Variable 4: End Date A 10

The message should be like this:
Item: ITEM is already in Tab: TAB for START Date to End Date

What is the most effective way to combine all 4 variables into one message. I am reviewing the concat option in RPG but someone have a nicer way?

Thanks,

DAC

[Chipper]

Re: Concat message into one string

/free

   MyString = 'Item: ' + %TRIM(ITEM) + ' is already in Tab: ' + %TRIM(%EDITC(TAB : 'J'))
+ ' for ' + StartDate + ' to ' + EndDate;

/end-free

[MichaelCatalani]

Re: Concat message into one string

                                                                         
d Message         s             52a   Varying                            
                                                                         
d Item            s             12a   Inz( '100-A' )                     
d Tab             s              5p 0 Inz( 3 )                           
d StartDate       s             10a   Inz( '03/01/2011' )                
d EndDate         s             10a   Inz( '03/15/2011' )                
                                                                         
 /free                                                                   
                                                                         
  Message = 'Item: ' + %trim( Item ) + ' is already in Tab: ' +          
            %char( Tab ) + ' for ' + StartDate + ' to ' + EndDate;       
                                                                         
  dsply Message;                                                         
  *inlr = *on;

Make sure to make your Message field "VARYING". This way, you can add data to the string in multiple steps, without having to %trim the blanks from the end every time. ie:

 
Message = 'Item: ' + %trim( Item );
Message += ' More data added';

[jamief]

Re: Concat message into one string

Why not use a message subfile and message data? ..that's what it was made to do.

[Chipper]

Re: Concat message into one string

@Michael: Wow, I never knew varying could avoid the %TRIM method. Thanks for the tip!

@Jamie: must confess -- haven't used msg sfls as much as I could have.

[MichaelCatalani]

Re: Concat message into one string

@Michael: Wow, I never knew varying could avoid the %TRIM method. Thanks for the tip!

What's especially cool about it is that now you can append a number of blanks to the end of the field. For instance:

Message = 'New Message';
Message += '   ';
Message +='There will be 3 blanks between this and the New Message Text';

If you dont use a varying field, then you will have to %trim or %trimr. In that case, there is no way to append a fixed number of blanks to the end of the field, because the next concatenation will have to make use of %trimr, which will remove them.

By using a varying field, you can "break up" the code that loads the string, and you will always be appending at the end of the string in the exact position you want. It also executes much faster, as you dont have the trim overhead. Also, many bifs, such as %lookup and %subst process over a varying field much more quickly than one thats not.

[dcutaia]

Re: Concat message into one string

Thanks for the suggestions. If i have my start and ending dates coming in as 20010809 numeric, what is the most effective method for converting them to 08/09/2001 within the message line?

DAC

[arrow483]

Re: Concat message into one string

Something like this, for the date portion

MyDate = %char(%date(startdate:*iso):*usa)