Naming Conventions for 3GL BIF on IBM i

Built-In Function Definition (BIF Name)

• BIF names can be up to 18 characters in length.

• The BIF name is composed of letters of the English alphabet (A through to Z), 0 through to 9 and underscore only.

• The BIF name should be in the format XX_YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

         where

         XX must be either UD for User-Defined or OV for Other Vendor

         YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY is the name that will describe, even to the non-programmer, what functions the BIF performs.

Program name

Program names can be up to 8 characters in length.

•  

• The program name must be in the format  XX@y999

         where

         XX identifies this as Built-In Function code; i.e. OV for Other Vendor or UD for User-Defined.

         y is the type of object, either P for Program or D for Display file

         999 is the unique identifier in the range:
               400 to 600 for User-Defined (UD) BIFs.
               600 to 999 for Other Vendor (OV) BIFs.

Subroutines

• Subroutine names can be up to 6 characters in length

• The name should be in the format IB@nnn

         where

         IB identifies this as Built-In Function code

         nnn is the unique identifier.

 

• The subroutine member name should be in the format BIFnnnxSPC

         where

         BIF identifies this as Built-In Function code

         nnn is the unique identifier

         x is the type

         SPC is a required literal

 

           Valid values for x (type) are:

F	File specifications (F specs)
E	Array specifications (E specs)
R	Rename specifications (I specs)
I	Data structure specifications (I specs)
C	Subroutine specifications (C specs)
O	Output specifications (O specs)
A	Compile time array data