The DEFINE (Field Definition) operation with *DTAARA in factor 1 associates a field, a data structure, a data-structure subfield, or a data-area data structure (within your ILE RPG program) with an AS/400 data area (outside your ILE RPG program).
In factor 2, specify the external name of a data area. Use *LDA for the name of the local data area or use *PDA for the Program Initialization Parameters (PIP) data area. If you leave factor 2 blank, the result field entry is both the RPG IV name and the external name of the data area.
In the result field, specify the name of one of the following that you have defined in your program: a field, a data structure, a data structure subfield, or a data-area data structure. You use this name with the IN and OUT operations to retrieve data from and write data to the data area specified in factor 2. When you specify a data-area data structure in the result field, the ILE RPG program implicitly retrieves data from the data area at program start and writes data to the data area when the program ends.
The result field entry must not be the name of a program-status data structure, a file-information data structure (INFDS), a multiple-occurrence data structure, an input record field, an array, an array element, or a table. It cannot be the name of a subfield of a multiple-occurrence data structure, of a data area data structure, of a program-status data structure, of a file-information data structure (INFDS), or of a data structure that already appears on a *DTAARA DEFINE statement, or has already been defined as a data area using the DTAARA keyword on a definition specification.
You can create three kinds of data areas:
You can also create a DDM data area (type *DDM) that points to a data area on a remote system of one of the three types above.
Only character and numeric types (excluding float numeric) are allowed to be associated with data areas. The actual data area on the system must be of the same type as the field in the program, with the same length and decimal positions. Indicator fields can be associated with either a logical or character data area.
For numeric data areas, the maximum length is 24 digits with 9 decimal places. Note that there is a maximum of 15 digits to the left of the decimal place, even if the number of decimals is less than 9.
In positions 64 through 70, you can define the length and number of decimal positions for the entry in the result field. These specifications must match those for the external description of the data area specified in factor 2. The local data area is character data of length 1024, but within your program you can access the local data area as if it has a length of 1024 or less.
*...1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7...+....
CL0N01Factor1+++++++Opcode(E)+Factor2+++++++Result++++++++Len++D+HiLoEq....
*
* The attributes (length and decimal positions) of
* the data area (TOTGRS) must be the same as those for the
* external data area.
C
C *DTAARA DEFINE TOTGRS 10 2
C
*
* The result field entry (TOTNET) is the name of the data area to
* be used within the ILE RPG program. The factor 2 entry (TOTAL)
* is the name of the data area as defined to the system.
C
C *DTAARA DEFINE TOTAL TOTNET
C
*
* The result field entry (SAVTOT) is the name of the data area to
* be used within the ILE RPG program. The factor 2 entry (*LDA)
* indicates the use of the local data area.
C
C *DTAARA DEFINE *LDA SAVTOT