Re: Field Type 'P' in a query

[Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

No problem in your asking, Glenn. Turns out you have a difficult one here.

Here's a suggestion, since Query/400 is not handy for doing this. This 
solution can be used repeatedly.

1. Create a physical file (ASCFIL) that is like your target file, except 
that the packed fields are replaced by zoned fields.

2. FTP the ASCII file into this new physical file directly - the numeric 
fields will just get filled in automagically.

3. CPYF ASCFIL TGTFIL MBROPT(*REPLACE) FMTOPT(*MAP)
                (or MBROPT(*ADD), as you require)
The zoned fields will get converted to packed automagically. I just 
verified that this works.

ASSUMPTIONS:
1. The numeric data in the ASCII file has no commas and is all positive, 
with leading zeroes in place.

HTH
Vern

At 02:24 PM 10/28/2004, you wrote:
> It was an ASCII file I uploaded to the 400.  Our OS version is V5R2.
>
> I am not leaving out information on purpose.  It's that I'm extremely 
> unfamiliar with the AS/400.
>
> The source data is a string or CHAR.
>
> Vernon Hamberg wrote:
>
> > The terms "flat file" and "externally-defined" don't usually go together 
> > in my mind, although they can. As Dan asked, what is the data type of the 
> > source? Is it a single character field? What is the formula you are 
> > using, if you are using a result field? If the source is character and 
> > needs to be substrung and then converted to numeric, this is hard in 
> > Query/400 but doable-you can use the MICROSECOND function - can tell you 
> > more if you need this ugliness. You'd be better off using an SQL query in 
> > a *QMQRY, using STRQMQRY with OUTPUT(*OUTFILE). What release of the OS 
> > are you at?
> >
> > Vern
>
>
> --
> Glenn Thompson
> Senior Analyst
> American Trouser, Inc.
> gthompson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> --
> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
> To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
> visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
> or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
> at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.