Maybe this is general ILE COBOL error handling, I don't know.

I'm trying to replace an inefficient call to an OPM CLP program that
uses CVTDAT to convert a date from *MDY to *YMD. The converted value is
*not* used; the purpose of the call is only to see if the date in the
parameter is a valid date value.

The calling program is currently OPM CBL, but it could easily be changed
to ILE CBLLE. I want to change the call to another ILE CBLLE program
that basically does the following:

move function convert-date-time
(Date-to-convert Date '%m%d%y')
to Rcv-date

Rcv-date is defined as:

77 Rcv-date format of date '%y%m%d'.


The conversion works great as long as Date-to-convert contains a valid
date in %m%d%y format (mmddyy). I'm *only* interested in calls where
the date is not valid. I want something like this:

move function convert-date-time
(Date-to-convert Date '%m%d%y')
to Rcv-date
on exception
move "Y" to error-sw
not on exception
move "N" to error-sw
end-move.

The MOVE statement doesn't allow the (NOT) ON EXCEPTION feature, so the
code fragment above won't work.

My IBM i COBOL skills are rusty, particularly with respect to ILE COBOL.
What is the easiest/cheapest/dirtiest way to handle the error if the
input date to the function won't convert?

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On 11/12/2018 9:21 PM, Jonathan Ball wrote:

Maybe this is general ILE COBOL error handling, I don't know.

I'm trying to replace an inefficient call to an OPM CLP program that
uses CVTDAT to convert a date from *MDY to *YMD. The converted value is *not* used; the purpose of the call is only to see if the date in the parameter is a valid date value.

The calling program is currently OPM CBL, but it could easily be changed
to ILE CBLLE. I want to change the call to another ILE CBLLE program
that basically does the following:

move function convert-date-time
(Date-to-convert Date '%m%d%y')
to Rcv-date

Rcv-date is defined as:

77 Rcv-date format of date '%y%m%d'.

The conversion works great as long as Date-to-convert contains a valid
date in %m%d%y format (mmddyy). I'm *only* interested in calls where
the date is not valid. I want something like this:

move function convert-date-time
(Date-to-convert Date '%m%d%y')
to Rcv-date
on exception
move "Y" to error-sw
not on exception
move "N" to error-sw
end-move.

The MOVE statement doesn't allow the (NOT) ON EXCEPTION feature, so the
code fragment above won't work.

My IBM i COBOL skills are rusty, particularly with respect to ILE COBOL.
What is the easiest/cheapest/dirtiest way to handle the error if the
input date to the function won't convert?

What I'd like is something like an RPGLE MONITOR block:

monitor;
rcv_date = %date(indate:*mdy0);
error_sw = 'N';
on-error;
error_sw = 'Y';
endmon;

I could probably sneak an RPGLE program/module into the mix and get away
with it, but it's largely an IBM i COBOL arena, and I'd prefer to stick
with it.

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Couple of options:

1) Write your own validation routine in COBOL

2) Use a date table and do a simple SQL/Keyed Read lookup to see if the key exists

3) Use the COBOL error response APIs to catch the exception and set a value which you subsequently check for the date validity. The routine doing the convert-date-time would need to be a nested program for that to work I guess.

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On 11/13/2018 8:17 AM, Jon Paris wrote:

Couple of options:

1) Write your own validation routine in COBOL

2) Use a date table and do a simple SQL/Keyed Read lookup to see if the key exists

3) Use the COBOL error response APIs to catch the exception and set a value which you subsequently check for the date validity. The routine doing the convert-date-time would need to be a nested program for that to work I guess.

Thanks for the suggestions. Speed was of the essence, so I wrote an
RPGLE module incorporating what I suggested earlier:

monitor;
rcv_date = %date(indate:*mdy0);
error_sw = 'N';
on-error;
error_sw = 'Y';
endmon;

It works great and is many times faster than the CLP that was using CVTDAT.

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