Re: Packed data in a zoned field

The trick that I always use for this is that I define a program described
file, putting a character field where the numeric field should be.

Then, I check the first byte of the field, and if it's > x'99' then I
assume that it's zoned, otherwise I assume it's packed.

If you wanted to be thorough, of course, you could check every byte in
the field this way...

Then, use a pointer to a packed field, and a pointer to a zoned field
to overlay that same character field, and use it to correct the problem...
(or use a data structure, if you prefer...)


On Fri, 16 Nov 2001 JMoore@nycm.com wrote:
>
> During a recent conversion a field in one of our databases defined as zoned
> somehow got packed information put into it.  The biggest issue is that some
> records have zoned and some have packed.   Does anyone have any suggestions
> as to how to correct this.
>