Data Structure issues in legacy software.

[Fooch]

I am working with a group to get a companys software automated. They wanted me to pull a section of code from an old program and use that to have it as a stand alone to perform the same operation it was it the original program. The problem is that we made a new service program to handle error checking as told by the client. To call this service program we have to send it a full record from a file to process. I can't create an external data structure of this file because there are fields from this file being used further down in the "D" specs. So I will get a duplicate definition type error. I can't do a prefixed external data structure because the data structure is not filled when the file is read. I can't use "I" specs because for 1.) it is dated, and 2.) it RENAMES the fields to the new ones specified. So any reference in the program and displays that use the original field names are now empty and that is a whole new set of issues. Anyone have any ideas how I can do this? All I need is a Data structure filled with an entire record of a file whenever it is read. I could do it if I rewrote the program but there is no time to do that with the aggresive timeline they expect from us. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Mercury2]

Maybe a pointer set to the data structure address could fit your needs. You can pas a pointer as a parameter to the service program instead of the data structure itself and base this pointer on the external prefixed data structure declared in the service program.
Pls paste the relevant parts of the service program here to see what we can do to help you. I can better figure out how the program is built and what you really mean when I can see the code.