.TEXT GET LENGTH

This subroutine determines the length of a text/alpha field.

Usage:

      PASS         <text_len>                 FIELD            SHARE? Y
      PASS         <text_field>               FIELD            SHARE? N
      PASS         <len_text_field>           FIELD            SHARE? N
      GOSUB    --- .TEXT GET LENGTH
      *        Check for errors
      IF       --- .TEXT GET LENGTH           NE

Description:

This subroutine determines the length of a text/alpha field. The both parameters are required. If any required parameters are missing, the subroutine will CANCEL.

<text_len> returns the length of <text_field> (Required). This must be PASSed with Share "Y" to return the value.

<text_field> is the field whose length you want to determine (Required).

<len_text_field> Optional - Release 6.0 + higher only. This is a optional performance enhancement to reduce the time required to determine the length of the <text_field>. You can PASS the maximum length you expect in <text_field>. For example, if your <text_field> is 1M in size, but you know the data will never be longer than 22 characters, you can pass 22 in the field to reduce the time the it takes the engine to determine the actual length of the data. However, note that you will never get a <text_len> greater than <len_text_field>. Default value is the full length of <text_field>.

Note that if you pass a non text field in <text_field>, it will be converted to an alpha field according to the rules of the SET command, and the length of that field returned.

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-- JeanNeron - 2012-02-09