[Fwd: Re: Extract Packed Numeric Data from a string.]

I apologize to everyone, but I'll have to correct myself a bit.

Don't know what I was thinking, probably it's just a friday night fever,
but of course, the third argument of SUBSTRING function is length of
argument, not upper boundary, so you'll have to change that accordingly
in the example below. Length of the number can be calculated as 
upperLimit - lowerLimit + 1. So for HEX purposes, where everything is
double, it comes to 

2 * (upperLimit - lowerLimit) + 2. Take the rightmost byte away (sign),
and it equals to 

2 * (ipperLimit - lowerLimit) + 1.

Sorry for the confusion,

Vanja Jovic,

Canada


>>>>
Mario,

this method assumes that you know how to deal with representation of
packed number:

DECIMAL(SUBSTRING(HEX(<oneMessyCharacterFieldWithPackedNumber),
lowerLimit * 2 - 1, upperLimit * 2  - 1))

you should experiment a little with loverLimit and upperLimit values.
They are positions of the first and the last character representing
packed number within character string. HEX function will make string
twice as long as original one (that's why there are "* 2 - 1"), then you
have to make sure that last character ('F' or 'C', representing sign) is
excluded. In case that you expect both positive and negative numbers,
you have to use CASE function to check for the last character. Something
like:

CASE
        WHEN
        SUBSTRING(HEX(<oneMessyCharacterFieldWithPackedNumber), upperLimit * 2,
1) = 'F'
        THEN
        DECIMAL(SUBSTRING(HEX(<oneMessyCharacterFieldWithPackedNumber),
lowerLimit * 2 - 1, upperLimit * 2  - 1))
        WHEN
        SUBSTRING(HEX(<oneMessyCharacterFieldWithPackedNumber), upperLimit * 2,
1) = 'D'
        THEN
        DECIMAL(SUBSTRING(HEX(<oneMessyCharacterFieldWithPackedNumber),
lowerLimit * 2 - 1, upperLimit * 2  - 1)) * (-1)
        ELSE
                0
END

As I said, you'll have to experiment a little with boundaries, as I'm
writing this without any references. Looks confusing, but it's fun.


Vanja Jovic,

Canada

>>>>>>>>>
Mario Cardinale wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> using SQL i need to extract a Packed Numeric Data from a string.
> 
> I've tried to use "CAST" function but it doesn't work with packed
> information.
> 
> Anyone can help me ?
> 
> Mario
> 
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