Re: eval from numeric to alpha?

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 5:48 PM, Hoteltravelfundotcom
<hoteltravelfun@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

the chain will try '12345' if not found then it will try '012345' etc. till
0000012345. I am not concerned that there are 2 legitimate records
012345 and 0012345.

I would be very concerned that there even is such a thing as 012345
and 0012345 being simultaneous, distinct, legitimate records. It
really shouldn't be possible in a sane system. (I know, I know, not
all systems are sane. More about that in a moment.)

A couple of the other brave folks who have tried to help have made the
very understandable assumption that when there are ANY leading zeros,
there are always enough leading zeros to pad out the value to some
fixed length (even if this length is not the maximum capacity of any
field). At best, ALL the key values would be this same fixed length.
At worst, only some values would be this fixed length, but any value
that was less than the fixed length would definitely not have any
leading zeros.

If your situation isn't what I've just described, then you have a
scarily bad system (definitely not sane), and my personal inclination
would be either to run away as quickly as possible, or roll up my
sleeves and get ready for a major overhaul of the system.

John Y.