Re: Question: If you %Trim( a blank field), does %Trim return a single blank or a *NULL ?

Voris, John wrote:

It looks like if the variable is blank, it is acting OK.
So the line below does not bomb out. But I was curious what it
resolves to.

The variable length field in RPG actually is a structure containing a
two byte integer containing the length, followed by a dataspace which
could potentially store the number of bytes allocated by the variable.
Therefore, if you %Trim() a blank variable, you actually get back a
structure containing x'0000' followed by a dataspace containing
indeterminate values (actually blank I believe.)

At any rate, its not null in the c language sense (one byte with all
bits off), or in the series i sense of a pointer that doesn't reference
anything, or in the SQL sense of an attribute of the data object.

hth
Pete Hall