Stuart,
A GOTO out of a WHILE/ENDHWILE is also not a good idea, IMHO, especially if it is an optimized WHILE loop. I use the same technique - set a variable to the value of a target label, BREAK out of the WHILE and then GOTO &vlabel. A GOTO in an IF/ENDIF is perfectly acceptable. As a side note, I also learned a long time ago (back in the 3.x / 4.x days) that one should not RUN other command files from within a SWITCH or WHILE. The trouble here was that R:BASE wouldn't always be able to 'RETURN' to the proper place. I think it was probably a memory allocation issue - this was DOS, after all. Windows may handle these situations better, but I still avoid the practice. My guiding principle here is to give R:BASE the opportunity to close the program control structure (SWITCH or WHILE) before I go shooting off somewhere else. IF/ENDIFs, even nested several levels deep, do not suffer from the same issues. Emmitt Dove Manager, DairyPak Business Systems Evergreen Packaging, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] (203) 643-8022 From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stuart Cohen Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 2:42 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Two eyes are not good enough Emmitt, Sami and Alastair: I very much appreciate your comments regarding GOTO commands within SWITCH blocks. During the long weekend, I was pondering over your comments regarding why GOTO commands could be a problem within SWITCH blocks, especially since I have not had a problem with this situation.........yet. Then it dawned on me! The GOTO statement would skip over the BREAK and ENDSW statements and can thus confuse the computer which is looking for these statements to close the block. It also dawned on me that IF blocks have corresponding ENDIF statements to close them and (though I have never put a GOTO command in one) WHILE loops have corresponding ENDWHILE commands to close them. Does this mean that a programmer should not put GOTO statements within IF Blocks and WHILE loops? Once again, thank you very much! Stuart J. Cohen, Ph.D. Major, Medical Service Corps Research Specialist Walter Reed Army Medical Center National Disaster Medical System Federal Coordinating Center Phone: 202-782-3636 Cell: 301-514-3975 Fax: 202-782-4360 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Emmitt Dove wrote: Stuart, To pick up on Albert and Sami's observations about the GOTO from a switch block, here is how I handle that: SET VAR vlabel TEXT = 'somelabel' SWITCH (.vwhatever) CASE 1 { Some condition exists } SET VAR vlabel = 'thisotherlabel' BREAK CASE 2 {a different condition exists} SET VAR vlabel = 'yetanotherlabel' DEFAULT BREAK ENDSW GOTO &vlabel Emmitt Dove Manager, DairyPak Business Systems Blue Ridge Paper Products, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] (203) 643-8022 Sami Aaron wrote: Stuart - I see two possibilities: "IF variable = NULL THEN" should be "IF variable IS NULL THEN" Within a SWITCH block, you should issue "BREAK" instead of using "GOTO TheEnd".. The break will drop the programming call down to the next line after the ENDSW line. Sami ____________________________ Sami Aaron Software Management Specialists 913-915-1971 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alastair Burr wrote: I may be completely wrong but I thought that GOTOs in SWITCH statements were something to be avoided. Maybe it's that which is not working? Regards, Alastair.
