ILE COBOL Data Exception on the 400

["Schaefer P. ONeill" <soneill@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Listers,

We are in the process of converting some Legacy COBOL programs from the 
OS/390 platform to the AS/400.

Within this legacy code are some (simplified) move statements (eg:



01  INPUT-REC.
     05  INPUT-VALUE-A    PIC X(20).
     05  INPUT-VALUE-B    PIC 9(08)V99.
     05  INPUT-VALUE-C    PIC 9(02).
     05  FILLER           PIC X(48).


01  WS-DATA-ELEMENTS.
     05  WS-VALUE-A       PIC X(20).
     05  WS-VALUE-B       PIC S9(9)V99     COMP-3.
     05  WS-VALUE-C       PIC 9(02).

     READ FILE-REC   INTO INPUT-REC.     (Works OK)

     MOVE INPUT-VALUE-A   TO WS-VALUE-A. (Works OK)
     MOVE INPUT-VALUE-B   TO WS-VALUE-B. (ERROR)
     MOVE INPUT-VALUE-C   TO WS-VALUE-C. (ERROR)

The trick here is that the FILE-REC sometimes has spaces in the numeric area.

Obviously we could test for spaces, examine replacing, or whatever ... but 
we're talking about 400,000+ lines of code ... and this was to be an easy task.

In the OS/390 world, the numeric defined fields on input-rec-a & b were 
treated as zeroes in the related move statements.  On the AS/400 ... it 
errors out.  In interactive mode, we can specify "G" and it continues to 
process, and finishes successfully (apparently having implicitly moved 
zeroes in place of the spaces).

We have scoured the COBOL book, looking for an override option for this 
handling ... no joy.

So ... I ask you for your guidance.

Thanks in Advance (TIA)
Schaefer ONeill





Schaefer P. ONeill
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