Phillip H. Griffin writes:
UTF8 characters), but this SIZE clause has a different purpose:
to force the string to have at least one character.
An omitted OPTIONAL variable length item (SEQUENCE OF, xxxString, etc)
can have two possible encodings - absent, or zero length. By forcing
I like DavidK's argument here. The zero does make life a
little more difficult for hand coders. A minimum of one
character allows them to switch solely on present or absent.
the item in question to have at least one element, the encoding
ambiguity is eliminated. I've gotten in the habit of including the
SIZE clause as boilerplate.
A very good habit.
Phil,
Watch out. Although the distinction may not exist here, there are
many contexts in which an absent string and a zero-length string
are not the same thing at all.
brian
briank(_at_)terisa(_dot_)com