PM09013: The toIndex of substring is not parsed correctly causing COBOL compiler errors or NegativeArraySizeException running Java

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• Rational Business Developer V7.5.1.4:
  
  Unexpected exceptions and errors occur when an assignment
  statement has a character expression on the left hand side,
  assigning a value from any ANY data type field.
  
  The problem is the length of the target (toIndex) is incorrectly
  set to an invalid value which causes the following problems:
  
  1) When debugging the EGL program, a
     java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException is received.
  
  2) When running the the EGL generated Java programs, the
     following error is received:
  
     EGL0100E An unhandled error occurred. Error:
              java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException.
  
  3) When preparing the EGL generating COBOL program, compiler
     errors are received.
  
     The following are the iSeries COBOL compiler errors received:
  
  
       *   577  MSGID: LNC1327  SEVERITY: 30  SEQNBR:  070700
                Message . . . . :   '-1' not defined in the
                program.  Clause ignored.
  
       *   577  MSGID: LNC1243  SEVERITY: 30  SEQNBR:  070700
                Message . . . . : Repetition factor in PICTURE not
                valid.  Repetition factor ignored.
  
       *   578  MSGID: LNC1327  SEVERITY: 30  SEQNBR:  070800
                Message . . . . : '-1' not defined in the program.
                Clause ignored.
  
       *   578  MSGID: LNC1243  SEVERITY: 30  SEQNBR:  070800
                Message . . . . : Repetition factor in PICTURE not
                valid.  Repetition factor ignored.
  
     The following is the zSeries COBOL compiler errors received:
  
  
       976 IGYDS1160-S Character(s) "-" were
                       found as "PICTURE" string character(s).  A
                       "PICTURE" string of "S9(1)" was assumed.
  
                       Same message on line:    977
  
  The following is an example of EGL source code which causes this
  problem:
  
    cChar char(20);
    any1 any;
    any1="AX";
    cChar[2:2+1-1] = any1;
  
  The problem in this case is the toIndex is set to -1 instead of
  2.
  

Local fix

• A fixtest is available from support.
  

Problem summary

• A compilation error is produced when a substring operation
  with a non trivial start and/or stop index is used as the
  target for an ANY type. In this testcase, the ANY was
  returned by a function invocation. When run in Java, this
  produces a runtime error due to a negative array subscript.
  

Problem conclusion

• The code was changed so that the ANY type is cast (via the
  AS expression) to a type whose length is non-negative
  

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:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  RATL BUS DEV

• Fixed component ID

  5724S5000

Applicable component levels

• R751 PSN

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