RE: substr bif question

["Dennis Lovelady" <iseries@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> You will need to bifs. 
>
> Work = %Subst(string: 1: 3); 
> If %Len(%TrimR(string)) > 3 and (work = 'A' or work = 'B' ...); 
> If you don't include the test for the length of the field, you 
> will get string 'A' as falling into your code. 
> This may or may not be acceptable. In this case I would not 
> use multiple %Subst() in the if statement due to making the
> routine faster.  

Not sure I understand this person's language, but I can say that all of the
solutions I have seen here will get you into trouble if STRING is a
varying-length field with a current length of less than 3 bytes.  And you
were correct in surmising that stating %SUBST three times might be less
efficient than one move to a 3-byte field.

If I were charged with this, I would create a 3-byte, no-varying-length
field (myString), and EVAL myString = string.

Then a simple:
  IF   (myString = 'A' or myString = 'B' or myString = 'C') ;
      // do stuff
  Else ;
      // do other stuff
  EndIF ;

Would fill the bill, and operate efficiently with no need for length checks.
Note that you do not need to specify trailing blanks in a string comparison.
'A' is equal to 'A     ' all day long from that perspective.  One is more
readable (at least that's my opinion), and the other has a tendency to make
one stop and count unnecessarily.

Regards,
Dennis

Dennis Lovelady
--
"For a moment, nothing happened.  Then, after a second or so, nothing
continued to happen."
        -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy