this book was originally built to be a textbook for university, college, and community college level courses for both the RPG/400 and RPGIV programming languages, the finished product is much more than that. It is also a tutorial, a by-example guide, as well as a complete reference for all IBM i on Power Systems RPG and RPGIV based application development Along with the tutorials to help you learn the language, this guide is also packed with reference material so you do not have to switch to a new book once you learn the language. For example, there is all the reference help you need to be able to use every op-code in RPG/400 and RPGIV as well as mostly all of the built-in functions BIF that you may ever need to use. If you are looking for how to use the new RPGIV keywords and the exclusive 'D' Spec, it's got that too! There are lots of RPG books but there has never been an RPG book like this. Instead of arguing about the merits of RPG/400, the cycle, and the modern feel of ILE RPG, this book teaches it all. You'll be pleased with all the valuable explanations right up to v 7.2. with super examples. You won't want to put down this comprehensive guide to learning AS/400 and IBM i RPG & RPGIV now that you've got your hands on it. This book is almost 50 years overdue.