# NATURAL Helproutines and OPTIONAL Parameters **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum\ **Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Natural, Natural-News-and-General-Topics\ **Created:** [June 19, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/natural-helproutines-and-optional-parameters/78370 "2008-06-19T01:41:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arieh\_Siegal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Arieh\_Siegal](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Arieh_Siegal)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/natural-helproutines-and-optional-parameters/78370/1 "2008-06-19T01:41:30Z")
I am maintaining a Helproutine called RFSTATH1 which has PARAMETER values defined as follows: 0230 DEFINE DATA 0240 PARAMETER 0250 1 RFSTATH1 0260 2 SEL-DECODE (A20) BY VALUE RESULT OPTIONAL 0270 2 SEL-KEY (A2) 0280 LOCAL USING RF0000AF 0290 LOCAL USING CO0000A3 0300 END-DEFINE In order to test out how the ‘BY VALUE RESULT OPTIONAL’ works on the first (explicit) parameter, I wrote an ad-hoc that looks like this: 0060 DEFINE DATA 0070 LOCAL 0080 1 RFSTATH1 0090 2 SEL-DECODE (A20) 0100 2 SEL-KEY (A2) 0110 END-DEFINE 0120 \* 0140 MOVE ‘TX’ TO SEL-KEY 0150 \* 0160 INPUT (AD=M) ‘=’ SEL-KEY (HE=‘RFSTATH1’,‘SEL-DECODE’) 0170 \* 0180 WRITE ‘=’ SEL-DECODE 0190 / ‘=’ SEL-KEY 0200 END (Note: The Helproutine puts up a list of valid State Codes & allows user to select one) Alas, when I run this, and then select a state (e.g. ‘CT’) from the Helproutine, the corresponding SEL-DECODE value (which, with NATURAL DEBUGGER and DIsplay VAriable feature, I verified really is populated with ‘CONNECTICUT’ within RFSTATH1), is being written as blank on my WRITE statement. This is making me think that the parm value really isn’t getting passed back…either that, or I’m doing something wrong in my Helproutine invocation. Ideas?? Thanks - Arieh ---
**Author:** ![Douglas\_Kelly](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/douglas_kelly/32/102_2.png) [@Douglas\_Kelly](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Douglas_Kelly)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 10:45am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/natural-helproutines-and-optional-parameters/78370/2 "2008-06-19T10:45:06Z")
try ```auto 0160 INPUT (AD=M) '=' SEL-KEY (HE='RFSTATH1',SEL-DECODE) ``` The helproutine cannot return a value to a literal ‘SEL-DECODE’ - it needs a variable, eg SEL-DECODE. ---
**Author:** ![Arieh\_Siegal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Arieh\_Siegal](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Arieh_Siegal)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/natural-helproutines-and-optional-parameters/78370/3 "2008-06-19T20:07:21Z")
Thanks Douglas. I had a feeling I was doing something dumb…I had the quotes there from a previous test & forgot to take them out. Arieh ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/natural-helproutines-and-optional-parameters/78370/4 "2021-04-02T14:50:32Z")