Copyright (c) Compaq Computer Corporation 2000. All rights reserved.

PRODUCT:    DIGITAL DEC PL/I for OpenVMS Alpha, Version 4.2A-112

COMPONENT:  Compiler (DPLI$COMPILER.EXE)

OP/SYS:     Compaq OpenVMS Alpha, Version 6.2 through 7.1

SOURCE:     Compaq Computer Corporation


SYMPTOM:

Execution of the GET LIST statement with the STRING option fails to
read data into an input variable, when the string expression contains
multiple commas.

When executed on OpenVMS VAX, the identical program correctly reads
the data into the input variable.

NOTE:  The steps used to demonstrate the reported behavior are included in
       the EXAMPLE section at the end of this article.


COMPAQ RESPONSE:

Engineering has acknowledged this problem and plans to address it in a
future release.


EXAMPLE:

Execution of the following program demonstrates the reported behavior:

   $ TYPE GET_LIST.PLI
   GET_LIST:    PROCEDURE OPTIONS (MAIN);

   DCL  InpStr  CHAR (132) VAR;
   DCL  Temp    CHAR (132) VAR;

   InpStr = 'should be blank';
   Temp = ',,';

   GET LIST (InpStr) STRING (Temp);

   IF LENGTH (InpStr) > 0 THEN
   DO;
        PUT SKIP EDIT ('InpStr = ', InpStr) ( A, A);
        PUT SKIP EDIT ('InpStr should be 0 bytes long') (A);
   END;
      ELSE
        PUT SKIP EDIT ('InpStr is 0 bytes long') (A);
   END GET_LIST;

   $ PLI GET_LIST
   $ LINK GET_LIST
   $ RUN GET_LIST

   InpStr = should be blank
   InpStr should be 0 bytes long

When executed on OpenVMS VAX, the program generates the following output:

   $ RUN GET_LIST

   InpStr is 0 bytes long

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