IBM Mainframe Forum

Hello, I'm facing a problem with Dim statement into a macro for IBM 5250 (Client Access). Here is my simple code:



When I run this macro on emulator I always get an error at line "Dim value as String": End of statement expected. If I define value variable as "Dim value" without "As String" script runs fine, but I need to define the type of each variable. Any ideas? Thanks.

Are you sure 'value' is an allowed variable name - I would have thought that it was a reserved word. certainly it is not a good name for a variable.

Thanks for your quick response. Well, you are right but I have translated this word to english because this is an english forum. The original script is like below, and "valor" is not a reserved word:


I tried to convert "As" to LowerCase and get the same error:


I think this is a weird error because refering to the API document http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocente ... cess08.htm there are many variables declared like mine.

Val however is a VB function (or, at least, a VBA function which is the only reference I have to hand) so I wonder if VB is getting confused?

Val is a function but Valor isn't. I wonder too coz I copied and pasted -Dim x As Number- line from http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocente ... ingdim.htm to my .mac file and I run it on Client Access emulator and it gives me the same error Perhaps I'm declaring variables in a wrong section. I dont know.

Well in order to avoid creating variables I have removed OPTION EXPLICIT line, but now I have not accuracy of the type of variable.
Thank you for your time.

hi, I think you can define the variable as below:
dim valor
no need to indicate the type, just use it.
if you give a string value to it, then it would be a String type; if you give a integer value to it, it would be a integer type. you can have a try.

Hello. Yes, it works like you say, but it's the same as no declaring variables.

Thanks for your response.

Is it a Visual Basic macro? The page you linked to was for Basic, not Visual Basic. I could not see OPTION EXPLICIT in those pages so I cannot say if it is a part of Basic or not. Also, not specifying a type in Basic is not the same as with Visual Basic. In Basic it assumes the type of the first data assigned to it and it keeps that type from that point onwards. But, in Visual Basic you do not need to declare the type when using OPTION EXPLICIT - just the name.

The first page I linked is for VB, not Basic: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocente ... cess08.htm and I can see there thousands of examples of variable declarations where type is defined. If I copy & paste kinda of that code to my .mac file and I run it into Client Access Emulator it crashes always at Dim statement. At first post of this thread there is a code example that everybody can try it for yourself.

I have found this VB code for Client Access (AS400) that export any AS400 screen to an Excel sheet: http://forums.iprodeveloper.com/forums/aft/148659
XavierM declares variables without specifying its type. Well, I am very confused with this, but I think NicC is right.
From now I'll try to declare variables with no type.

Thank you all.