Re: SQL Casting/Exponential Notation

On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 3:15 PM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think I've heard a few options:
- Writing directly to a CSV with stream file apis.  Does away with my pet
peeves and allows you to ensure that the number is not stored as "5E72"
but is instead stored as a number.  APIs are documented at Scott Klement's
web site.

Well, if I understood correctly, he wants the character string value,
and not the number (which Excel is all too happy to give him).

But regardless, there is no reliable way to differentiate numeric and
character data in CSV, if Excel is the consumer of that CSV. It
doesn't matter how you write the CSV (whether using CPYTOIMPF or
writing direct to stream file with your own custom program). Excel
doesn't know or care how your wrote it.

- Using HSSF APIs as documented at Scott Klement's website.  But, for some
reason, they were not desired.  It was new, change or something else that
made the sky to appear as falling.

The easy400.net wrappers may reduce the intimidation factor there.

- Using IBM i Access for windows file transfer to get it on to your PC

This can work. Don't pick CSV as the destination format though!

- Using the Data transfer AddIn for Excel to read data directly from the i
into Excel

I've never used this myself. It probably works as well as IBM i
Access. (I always thought it was just a wrapper for i Access anyway,
though that is only my guess.)

John