Compare help

Hope someone can help.
I am retrieving a as400 database field that is 8 positions packed and if it
is not zeros I want to format the field as sting with the slashes. I put the
program in debug and look at the variable it is "0" When I make the compare
to "0" it comes up as a false.  Can anyone tell me why?

BigDecimal Wdate = (BigDecimal)keyedRecord.getField("RREXWD"); // Withdrawal
Date
                
                // reformat the Date 
                String FMTDATE = Wdate.toString();
                StringBuffer STGBUFF =  new StringBuffer("          ");
                                 
                if(FMTDATE.trim.equals("0")) 
        {       
        }
        else {
                STGBUFF.append(FMTDATE.substring(4,6));
                STGBUFF.append("/");
                STGBUFF.append(FMTDATE.substring(6));
                STGBUFF.append("/");
                STGBUFF.append(FMTDATE.substring(0,4));
        }

        System.out.println("After String Buffer getReqInfo() method of
HTMLSignHandler");

Michael P. Gibbons
Manager of Programming & Technical Services 
MARYWOOD UNIVERSITY
2300 Adams Ave. 
Scranton, PA 18509

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