Trapping Hex Hi and Lo values

[bvining@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

RPG provides figurative constants such as *HIVAL and *LOVAL which equate
to literal values of x'FF...' and x'00...' respectively (when working
with character fields).  These constants are specified without a length
as the length is implied by the field associated with the figurative
constant.  So to trap a character field of x'FFFFFF' could be done as:

     C           FIELD     IFEQ *HIVAL
     C           'EQUAL'   DSPLY
     C                     END

You also asked if the representation of NULL is x'000000', and the
answer is 'it all depends'.  Some languages do equate NULL with a value
of x'00', others equate NULL with the absence of a value.  In the
case of DB2/400, NULL represents a condition where no value is associated
with a field (though the storage allocated for the field will most
certainly contain some hex value which may (or may not) be x'00').  In
this situation the developer needs to test for the condition of NULL and
not the value of NULL (though many have difficulty distinguishing between
the two).

Bruce Vining

>
>Hi All,
>
> In one of our database files, we have some fields with Hex values.
>These are Hex Hi and Lo values. They contain the Hi value (FFFFFF) and lo value
>(000000, is it the representation for NULL??) as the data. I am not good at
>cobol. But someone was telling me that it is possible to pass Hi and Lo values
>in cobol to database fields and in such cases we get Hi and Lo values in Hex
>format.
>
>My problem is that I have to trap for these Hi and Lo values which are stored
>in Hex. How do I do this RPG? Thanx in advance for any help or suggestions.
>
>Rgds
>Vg
>

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