In Mainframe FOCUS, the manual says you can't call to a location in a FOCEXEC that is outside an -INCLUDE. I want to include an -INCLUDE that might have several -GOTO statements.

Has anyone been able to circumvent this limitation, and if you did, how did you do it?

Thanks to all who reply.... this forum is great!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: webmeister,

Have you tried what you are wanting to do and getting an error? I'm not exactly sure what it is you're trying to accomplish but from your brief description, I don't think there would be a problem. You need to take care that you don't create duplicate labels when you -INCLUDE code that also has labels, loops, or -GOTOs. I've found multiple examples over time of things the book says you can't do, but they work (and a few things it says work that don't !!) Best bet it to try it out first. If you have problems or error messages after that, then explore other possibilities.

The inner fex may have -GOTO statements; the restriction is that their target (where they 'go to') must be a label declared in the inner fex itself.

You should avoid duplicate labels (identical label appearing in the inner and outer fexes) -- best practice is to include a prefix unique to the fex as part of any label. You can use '.' to separate the prefix from the 'meaningful' part of the label, along these lines:

-REPEAT FOO.LOOP1 FOR &I FROM &A TO &B ;
. . .
-IF (...) THEN GOTO FOO.EXIT1;
. . .
-FOO.LOOP1
-FOO.EXIT1

If the inner fex needs to cause branching in the outer, it should set a dialog manager variable for the outer fex to test.

Thanks for your fast replies! There are no duplicate labels in the FEX I'm trying to include...what I'm trying to do is to have my logic go to somewhere else in the primary FEX. So... there's no way around trying to goto an outside area from an include?

Here's my code - it keeps bombing on the GOTO MAINSTEP.

-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'SAC'  GOTO SETFORSPC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'SPC'  GOTO SETFORPAC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'PAC'  GOTO SETFORNVC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'NVC'  GOTO SETFORNLC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'NLC'  GOTO TABLTHIS;  
-SETFORSPC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'SPC';                     
-SET &COL   = 2;                         
-GOTO MAINSTEP                           
-SETFORPAC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'PAC';                     
-SET &COL   = 3;                         
-GOTO MAINSTEP                           
-SETFORNVC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'NVC';                     
-SET &COL   = 4;                         
-GOTO MAINSTEP                           
-SETFORNLC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'NLC';                     
-SET &COL   = 5;                         
  

Thanks again.....

If that absolutely does not work, you could easily rearrange your code and by controlling where you place the -INCLUDE, you could make this work. For example, put -MAINSTEP at the end of your inner fex and then -INCLUDE this fex in place of the -MAINSTEP line in your outer fex. You may want to test for the 'NLC' values also in you outer fex. Again, be aware that if your -GOTOs are such that this code may be -INCLUDED more than once (which it appears to me may be the case) you've got duplicate labels.

If your INCLUDEd fex is just before the MAINSTEP label of the main program, you could make the GOTO label the last line of code in the INCLUDE, then the main program would just continue to the MAINSTEP label:

-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'SAC'  GOTO SETFORSPC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'SPC'  GOTO SETFORPAC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'PAC'  GOTO SETFORNVC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'NVC'  GOTO SETFORNLC; 
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'NLC'  GOTO TABLTHIS;  

-SETFORSPC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'SPC';                     
-SET &COL   = 2;                         
-GOTO PREMAINSTEP

-SETFORPAC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'PAC';                     
-SET &COL   = 3;                         
-GOTO PREMAINSTEP

-SETFORNVC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'NVC';                     
-SET &COL   = 4;                         
-GOTO PREMAINSTEP

-SETFORNLC                               
-SET &INSTX = 'NLC';                     
-SET &COL   = 5;      

-TABLTHIS

-PREMAINSTEP 

Though this scenario is probably unlikely in your case.

And thank you all for offering thoughts and assistance. Unfortunately, the -INCLUDEd part is at the end of a loop, not at the start.... in other words, in my main program, I've got something similar to the following pseudocode:

Start the FEX
After some calculations get into the main processing
-MAINSTEP
.....
.....
.....
Body of processing goes here.....
....
....
my INCLUDE goes here (the one that says GOTO MAINSTEP)
....
....

So as you can see, your suggestions, while valid in your suggestions, will not work here. If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears (or is it eyes?). Thanks!

What you could do is set a variable in your include that tell the Focexec to go to MAINSTEP. The have the actual GOTO be to the last line in the INCLUDE. The first line after the INCLUDE would query that variable to determine whether it should GOTO MAINSTEP, or just continue processing. Something like:
Start the FEX
After some calculations get into the main processing
-MAINSTEP
.....
.....
.....
Body of processing goes here.....
....
....
my INCLUDE goes here (the one that sets &MYGOTO = 'Y' (a variable) and says GOTO LASTLINE)
-IF &MYVAR = 'Y' THEN GOTO MAINSTEP;
....
....

Is there a reason that this has to be -INCLUDEd? Just put the code where you need instead of -INCLUDEing it. In any case, as mentioned before since you've got the -INCLUDE inside a loop (created with your -GOTOs) you're -INCLUDING your inner code multiple times and DUPLICATING LABELS. It is not going to work that way - you've got to come up with an alternate processing flow.

You can -INCLUDE the same fex in several places (or within a loop); when a GOTO is encountered, control will continue at the line with that label in the 'currently active instance' of the inner fex, within the context of the outer fex (or the nest of outer fexes).

Focus (or WF) keeps track of the location (fex, line) of labels it encounters. If the taget label of a GOTO is already known, control skips directly there; if not, Focus scans through the current fex for the label. -- But if an inner fex has -GOTO xxx, where xxx was previously encountered as a label in a different fex file, you get an error.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: j.gross,

Diptesh,

Thank you for your suggestion.... I'm going to try working with it and see what happens.

Darin,

The reason for trying to use an -INCLUDE is twofold.... to cut down on the keyboard work I have to do per program and to have just one piece of code as an INCLUDE so that I don't have to change a whole bunch of programs if one thing changes down the road.

Jack,

It sounds like you were answering Darin's reply...is that correct?

Thanks to all!!

WebMeister,

The following may also be helpful:
In the outer fex there are a number of labels that could be jumped to.
The condition that controls which label to go to is inside the include fex.
What you could do is to set an &-variable (say &NEXT_STEP) in the outer fex that holds the name of the default label to go to. This variable could then be changed in the include fex to the name of whatever label it needs. After returning from your include fex, you simply say -GOTO &NEXT_STEP.

Hope this helps ...

GamP,

But wouldn't that end up still being the same thing? In other words, if the inside FOCEXEC can't actually do a _GOTO to an outside FOCEXEC label, how would the inside FOCEXEC go to an &-variable which is outside of the inside FOCEXEC?

Or am I getting myself confused?

In any case, thanks for replying....I appreciate it!

What I think GamP means is that in your inner INCLUDE you would set a DM variable with the name of the label (which is in your outer fex) you would like to GOTO, then, also in your inner INCLUDE you would go to the end of that fex. Back in the outer fex, just after the INCLUDE statement, you would have a -GOTO &NEXT_STEP.

Something like this:

-*Start the FEX
-*After some calculations get into the main processing

-MAINSTEP

.....
.....
.....

Body of processing goes here.....

....
....

-INCLUDE SETFOR

-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'SAC'  GOTO SETFORSPC;
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'SPC'  GOTO SETFORPAC;
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'PAC'  GOTO SETFORNVC;
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'NVC'  GOTO SETFORNLC;
-IF   &INSTX   EQ 'NLC'  GOTO TABLTHIS;

-SETFORSPC
-SET &INSTX = 'SPC';
-SET &COL   = 2;
-SET &NEXT_STEP = 'MAINSTEP';
-GOTO PREMAINSTEP

-SETFORPAC
-SET &INSTX = 'PAC';
-SET &COL   = 3;
-SET &NEXT_STEP = 'MAINSTEP';
-GOTO PREMAINSTEP

-SETFORNVC
-SET &INSTX = 'NVC';
-SET &COL   = 4;
-SET &NEXT_STEP = 'MAINSTEP';
-GOTO PREMAINSTEP

-SETFORNLC
-SET &INSTX = 'NLC';
-SET &COL   = 5;
-SET &NEXT_STEP = 'MAINSTEP';
-GOTO PREMAINSTEP

-TABLTHIS
-SET &NEXT_STEP = 'ELSEWHERE';

-PREMAINSTEP

-GOTO &NEXT_STEP

-ELSEWHERE

....
....

Francis,

I think I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel....thnak you for your clarifications.

It sure would be nice if IBI ever allows a -GOTO in an inner fex to call to a label in an outer fex, wouldn't it?

Thanks for your advice - I appreciate your taking the time to write.