Re: Cobol Linear search Vs Perfrom Until

From: William M. Klein (wmklein_at_nospam.netcom.com)
Date: 07/17/04 

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:03:00 GMT

"Glenn Someone" <dontspamme@whydoyouneedmyaddressspammers.com> wrote in message
news:rkhgf01hkvc8amalakdl0p1ba7o2u878eq@4ax.com...
> Why should it? <snip>
> Yes the position you arrive upon is unpredictable, but that doesn't
> make the algorithm unpredictable. It also doesn't justify throwing
> out the baby with the bath water and scrapping a superior algorithm
> for one that is not.
>

Glenn,
  Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but ...

If one codes a SEARCH ALL against a table that may or may not find the table
enttry that you want (i.e. it might be the first of duplicates, the second of
duplicates, or a random entry that doesn't even match any of the duplicate
entries), then I can't imagine what USE that would be.

A Standard conforming compiler *need not* even find one of the "duplicate"
entries when a SEARCH ALL is done - against a table with multiple entries with
the same key. The Standard (current and past) is pretty clear (as stated by
Chuck earlier) that if there are multiple table entries with the same key value,
then "results are unpredictable".

I don't think this is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater - but
rather is a case of avoiding throwing a baby into the middle of an olympic size
pool <G>. 

-- 
Bill Klein
 wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com

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