Re: convert *usa formatted varying string bombs at v5r4

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Steve Richter
<stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I saw that Luis. But 10/1/2012 converts correctly when it is in a
character field. But not when in a varying field. I do not know if that is
a feature or a bug.

For me, on V5R4, it seems that when using a varying field, it works if
I use the leading zeros, but doesn't work if I don't. When using a
fixed-length field, it works whether I use leading zeros or not.

I would definitely call this a bug. Personally, I think being able to
accept month and day with or without leading zero is the way it
*should* work, but the documentation says the zeros are required, so
the prudent thing to do is operate under the assumption that the zeros
are required. The fact that the zeros are not needed for the
fixed-length field (at least for some releases) is basically an
accident and should not be counted on. (See Chuck's links for further
discussion.)

Also, regardless of whether IBM really wants the leading zeros to be
required or not, the fact that the behavior doesn't match the
documentation is a bug, even if that bug is in the documentation
rather than the implementation.

John