How do I get the current remaining length of a string?

Question

I've got an array

DO WHILE (NOTEND = '1'B);
    IF (LENGTH(VALUELIST) > 8) THEN DO;
        VALUELIST = SUBSTR(VALUELIST,8);
    END;
    ELSE DO;
        NOTEND='0'B;
    END;
END;

Now my problem is: Length(valuelist) always returns the original definition of the characterfield: CHAR(500) thus 500. I didn't find any other command there though.

Thus my question is: How can I get the remaining length of that string (aka of its content not the char array itself)?

does that mena if I use substr this way it fills it up to the 500 char with blanks? @LasseV.Karlsen ? (that.....is unexpetected then trying it out) — Thomas, Aug 01 '20 at 13:48

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 11 '20 at 01:53

The solution provided by Lasse V. Karlsen is one method. A different, possibly more straight-forward solution would be to use CHAR VARYING (a.k.a. VARCHAR), which maintains the length of the string. After the assignment, LENGTH(VALUELIST) will be correct (8 less than the previous length).

How do I get the current remaining length of a string?

1 Answers1