[DAFFODIL-1503] Warning needed for length="0" being ignored.

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 3.1.0
• Component/s: Diagnostics, Front End, Usability
• Assignee: Steve Lawrence
• Reporter: Mike Beckerle
• Created: 13/May/16 18:17
• Updated: 26/Jan/21 12:33
• Resolved: 21/Jan/21 18:07

Description

When using dfdl:outputValueCalc, a very common idiom is to create temporary locations that evaluate when unparsing, but which have no representation in the data.

This is typically done by dfdl:length="0" dfdl:lengthKind="explicit".

If you leave off the dfdl:lengthKind="explicit" however, and the surrounding format has dfdl:lengthKind of "implicit", then the dfdl:length="0" is just silently ignored.

Similarly if dfdl:lengthKind="delimited" or "pattern" again the dfdl:length property will be ignored.

This should either be an SDE, or SDW (schema definition warning)