PH57717: ERRORS USING CHARACTER BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS WITH CONCATENATION

Obtain the fix for this APAR.

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• If a built-in character function such as LOWER or UPPER is used
  in a conditional assembly character expression that also
  involves concatenation of character strings (either within the
  function operands or before the function) then the results may
  have the wrong length and contain the wrong data.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED: Users of HLASM for z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE and     *
  *                 Linux                                        *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: Errors using character built-in         *
  *                      functions with concatenation            *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
  ****************************************************************
  1. For all built-in functions such as LOWER and UPPER which take
     a single character operand and produce a character result,
     the implementation assumed that the function either applied
     only to the most recent character term or to the whole
     character expression so far.
  
     This means that if the expression used concatenated values
     within the function parameter string, or the function was
     concatenated before or after another value, then the function
     could use the wrong input values, or a following value could
     be incorrectly positioned, resulting in an incorrect result.
  
  2. The SYSATTRA and SYSATTRP built-in functions only worked
     correctly when the operand consisted of a single character
     string or a reference to a single symbolic variable.
  
  3. Character built-in functions cannot be used within the
     operands of another character function, but the code did not
     validate this, causing strange syntax errors.
  
  4. If an character expression involved an indirectly nested
     character expression, for example within an arithmetic
     term, then this would overwrite the outer character
     expression because they both used the same storage area.
  
  5. If a character string within character function operands was
     followed by a substring expression, this was assumed to end
     the operands so any attempt to concatenate a further value
     caused a syntax error.
  

Problem conclusion

• 1. The processing of parameters for character built-in functions
     has been corrected to pick up the correct input values,
     taking any concatenation into account.
  
  2. The SYSATTRA and SYSATTRP built-in functions now fully
     evaluate their parameter string before using it to look up
     the relevant symbol.
  
  3. An attempt to use a character built-in function within the
     operands of another character function will now be rejected,
     resulting in message ASMA137S.
  
  4. If an indirectly nested character expression is encountered,
     the storage for the outer character expression is saved and
     restored to prevent it from being overwritten.
  
  5. A character string substring expression within function
     operands can now be followed by further concatenated
     character items.
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

  UI94346 UI94347 UI94348

Modules/Macros

•    ASMAINFO ASMA1M   ASMA1N   ASMA1T   ASMA1U
  ASMA9Z
  

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  HLASM MVS, VM &

• Fixed component ID

  569623400

Applicable component levels

• R160 PSY UI94347

     UP23/11/09 P F311

• R360 PSY UI94346

     UP23/11/07 P 2311

• R689 PSY UI94348

     UP23/11/08 I 1000

Fix is available

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