Using MsgGetText to Concatenate Strings

Lately, I’ve been using the MsgGetText() built-in function to concatenate adhoc strings in PeopleCode. For example, instead of the following:

Local string &TEXTLINE = "Value of " | &fld1name | " is " | &fld1value | ".";

Using MsgGetText, it can be re-written as follows:

Local string &TEXTLINE = MsgGetText(0, 0, "Value of %1 is %2.", &fld1name, &fld1value);

I find that the latter is easier to read and modify compared to the first, especially if there are a lot of values being concatenated.

What about performance? Wouldn’t the MsgGetText code needlessly query the database for message (0, 0)? Fortunately, I think not. Some tests with SQL trace turned on — and the cache freshly cleared — show that a query to the message catalog for message (0, 0) is never performed by the application server. A wonderful optimization.