re: external data area

>At 12:24 AM 7/1/97, you wrote:
>>I want one of the fields in a 57 character external data area to be
>>numeric.  I can not figure out how to do that in CL.  It seems to be
>>insisting on *CHAR only, no numerics.  Can I put numeric values in the
>>data area?  say...  put a minus 3500 starting at postion 45
>>
>>     CHGDTAARA DTAARA(SMPLDA (45 4) VALUE(-3500)
>>
>>doesn't work.  Any ideas?
>
>You can't put a numeric value in a character data area.  However, you can
>change the numeric value into a character format, and then put into into
>the data area.  However, you will lose the sign for a negative value.
>
The sign and decimal point of a numeric field are brought forward to the
character field, e.g.

        DCL   &NUM   *DEC   LEN(5.2)   VALUE(-123.45)
        DCL   &NUMA  *CHAR  LEN(7)

        CHGVAR &NUMA &NUM

Variable &NUMA will have the value '-123.45'.


Charlie Massoglia, Massoglia Technical Consulting, Inc.
PO Box 1065, Okemos, MI 48854, USA
517-676-9700  Fax: 517-676-1006  EMAIL: cmassoglia@voyager.net


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