PM80544: StrLib.getNextToken(commandLine, i, delimiters) fails when commandLine itself consists only of delimiters

APAR status

• Closed as user error.

Error description

• StrLib.getNextToken(commandLine, i, delimiters) fails when
  commandLine itself consists only of delimiters
  
  When the commandLine consists of delimiters only such as ' , '
  parsing of tokens fails because getNextToken(...) returns null
  at each iteration.
  
  Environment
  -----------
  Windows, Linux
  Product name: IBM? Rational? Business Developer
  
  Program Version    :  8.5.0, 8.5.1
  
  
  Error
  ------
  No error is thrown but a parser loop as in the example below
  will loop indefinitely unless a check is inserted.
  
  Example
  -------
   commandLine STRING = '   ,  '; //loops indefinitely
   delimiters STRING = ', ';
   i INT = 1;
   max INT;
   tokens STRING[0];
   token STRING? = '';
  
   function main()
      max = strLib.byteLen(commandLine);
        syslib.writeStdout('comandLine length= '+max);
        // end processing when the getNextToken function returns a
  null
        while(i ? max)
           token = StrLib.getNextToken(commandLine, i,
  delimiters);
           if (token != null)
              tokens.appendElement(token);
              syslib.writeStdout('token = ?'+token+'?');
           end
        end
        syslib.writeStdout('tokens found= '+tokens.getSize());
       end
  
  To reproduce the error
  --------------------------
  Create a basic EGL program and insert the code above.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

Problem conclusion

Temporary fix

Comments

• This is not a bug.  The documentation for getNextToken says
  "If no token is found, the function returns a null value."
  It also says "If no token is found, index is unchanged."
  (Index is the name of the second parameter.)
  
  The user's loop should end when the function returns null.
  

APAR Information

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

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

Fix information

Applicable component levels