Re: how to create unsigned hexadecimal initial value

Leif and others,

Here's (my) better definition for H literals, which I think explains the
results seen in all of the examples brought forward so far.  I honestly
don't know if the PRM actually implements this definition, but it seems to.

The H literal is used to specify a signed integer value.  The format is
H'h1h2h3h4', where h1, h2, h3, and h4 are hexadecimal digits.  If fewer
than 4 digits are specified, leading zeros (0x00) are prepended.  For
example,  H'FF' is equivalent to H'000000FF'.  The sign of the value is
determined by the value of h1.  The largest positive value that can
specified is 2147483647 (H'7FFFFFFF').  [Note:  this is not unlike integer
literals in  C++.  For example, 0xff in the following statement represents
the value 255, not -1:  int h = 0xff;]

The length of an H literal is the minimum number of bytes needed to
represent the value.  The length of a negative value is always 4 bytes.

Examples:
H'FF'       has value 255 and length 1
H'0003'    has value 3 and length 1
H'800000FF' has value -2147483393 and length 4

Bob Donovan/Rochester/IBM,   Dept GZA,  Rochester, MN   (507) 253-4036
t/l: 553
rjd@us.ibm.com


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