The humble DLTOBJ is the topic of this weeks post. This finishes of the series on the main 2e internal function types. I have covered the RTVOBJ, CRTOBJ and CHGOBJ so far. Next weeks post will be about the mertis of using a CRT/CHG or CHG/CRT combination function.
Following that I will be blogging about standards for EXCUSRSRC, EXCUSRPGM and the EXCINTFUN/EXCEXTFUN function types before moving on to a series on the screen function types.
So plenty to get though over the next few weeks. For those of you following the series, bare with me as I get these completed and published.
Back to todays topic. The delete object (DLTOBJ).
General considerations.
Only one DLTOBJ, the default (*DLT), should be present on any file. It will have no action diagram coding added.
If other associated files must be deleted or updated at the same time as the DLTOBJ. An EXCINTFUN or RTVOBJ should be created as a standard wrapper and named *DLT (Cascade).
You can use a DLTOBJ to clear an array. Simply create the DLTOBJ function over the array and remove all keys. Note this technique is not applicable for files. You should prefix the array clearing delete with CLR. I.e. "CLR Standards Sample" dropping the ARY prefix from the actual array. Note: If using the Cobol generator then this is inefficient and you are better to use the traditional RTVOBJ/DLTOBJ approach.
Auditing at record level. Remember that you no not need to add auditing records for any entry you are deleting.
Gotcha's
It is not possible to suppress the error message if the record to be deleted does not exist. Therefore if the DLTOBJ is conditional it should be called from a RTVOBJ based over the same file. Note: If called directly then the *Return code must be set to *Normal as deleting a record that is no there is generally not considered and trapped as an error.
Thanks for reading.
Lee.
Following that I will be blogging about standards for EXCUSRSRC, EXCUSRPGM and the EXCINTFUN/EXCEXTFUN function types before moving on to a series on the screen function types.
So plenty to get though over the next few weeks. For those of you following the series, bare with me as I get these completed and published.
Back to todays topic. The delete object (DLTOBJ).
General considerations.
Only one DLTOBJ, the default (*DLT), should be present on any file. It will have no action diagram coding added.
If other associated files must be deleted or updated at the same time as the DLTOBJ. An EXCINTFUN or RTVOBJ should be created as a standard wrapper and named *DLT (Cascade).
You can use a DLTOBJ to clear an array. Simply create the DLTOBJ function over the array and remove all keys. Note this technique is not applicable for files. You should prefix the array clearing delete with CLR. I.e. "CLR Standards Sample" dropping the ARY prefix from the actual array. Note: If using the Cobol generator then this is inefficient and you are better to use the traditional RTVOBJ/DLTOBJ approach.
Auditing at record level. Remember that you no not need to add auditing records for any entry you are deleting.
Gotcha's
It is not possible to suppress the error message if the record to be deleted does not exist. Therefore if the DLTOBJ is conditional it should be called from a RTVOBJ based over the same file. Note: If called directly then the *Return code must be set to *Normal as deleting a record that is no there is generally not considered and trapped as an error.
Thanks for reading.
Lee.
