RE: rpg style question

["Dennis Lovelady" <iseries@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> In the OP's example the values were Y/N, so a direct conversion to
> *ON/*OFF
> seems justified. Agree if other values exist that do not collapse into
> a
> binary condition.

Yes.  My point is that it may *seem* to be justified while it actually is
not.  Without knowing the expertise level of the OP, I was cautious.

Recently I worked on an application where the "Y/N" tests of some field were
rampant.  Another developer saw a case where this field was involved in the
following:
    IF    THEFLD = "Y"
      someCounter += 1 ;
    EndIF ;
    If    THEFLD = 'N' ;
      otherCounter += 1 ;
    EndIF ;

The other developer changed it to this, which *SEEMS* sound:
    IF    THEFLD = "Y"
      someCounter += 1 ;
    Else ;
      otherCounter += 1 ;
    EndIF ;

What he failed to notice was that there were places in the program where
CLEAR THEFLD had been used to reset its value (to spaces), and so there were
times when neither was a true statement.  Alas, the concepts sometimes seem
sound, but deceptively so.

Dennis Lovelady
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennislovelady
--
"During the scrimmage, Tarkanian paced the sideline with his hands in his
pockets while biting his nails."
        -- from a story in the Fresno Bee about Fresno State basketball
coach Jerry Tarkanian