spacesZero

The spacesZero build descriptor option specifies whether the generated program includes extra code to process numeric variables that are filled with spaces.

The specific situation concerns variables that have the following characteristics:
  • They were declared in EGL with primitive type NUM or NUMC
  • They might contain spaces, as when the variable is subordinate to a structure item of type CHAR

The spacesZero build descriptor option has no effect on variables that receive a combination of spaces and other characters.

This option can be affected by the value of the v60NumWithCharBehavior build descriptor option, as shown in the following table:

Table 1. Effect of v60NumWithCharBehavior on spacesZero
spacesZero v60NumWith-CharBehavior Numeric Source is blanks Text Target Results
n/a YES NUM CHAR v60NumWithCharBehavior takes priority:
  • spacesZero has no effect
  • assignment is done as a byte move
  • comparison is done as a byte compare without changing the value of the NUM field
n/a YES NUM any text target other than CHAR v60NumWithCharBehavior does not apply:
  • numeric assignment or comparison
  • behavior is the same as when v60NumWithCharBehavior = "NO" (see next 2 rows of this table)
NO NO NUM any text target v60NumWithCharBehavior does not apply:
  • numeric assignment or comparison
  • data in NUM source is not a valid numeric value
  • exception thrown
YES NO NUM any text target v60NumWithCharBehavior does not apply:
  • numeric assignment or comparison
  • spacesZero = "YES" is honored
  • NUM field is changed to 0 before the assignment or comparison
NO n/a NUMC any text target v60NumWithCharBehavior does not affect the NUMC type:
  • numeric assignment or comparison
  • data in NUMC source is not a valid numeric value
  • exception thrown
YES n/a NUMC any text target v60NumWithCharBehavior does not apply:
  • numeric assignment or comparison
  • spacesZero = "YES" is honored
  • NUMC field is changed to 0 before the assignment or comparison
n/a n/a any other combination of numeric source and text targets v60NumWithCharBehavior does not affect these types. spacesZero does not affect these types.
  • numeric assignment or comparison
  • If the numeric field is invalid (for example, for DEC or PACF), an exception is thrown

Values

NO (the default value)
Does not include the extra code necessary to interpret the spaces as zeros. NO is appropriate if you are sure that no NUM or NUMC variables in the program will ever contain spaces. NO is the default because the code is more efficient at run time.
YES
Include extra code to avoid an abend when a NUM or NUMC variable containing spaces is processed in a program or function script. The variable is treated as if the spaces were zeros.