Re: convert *usa formatted varying string bombs at v5r4

On Tue, 29 Jan 2013, at 13:12:58, John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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.

I don't think that the leading zero has anything to do with it as such - rather it is the effect that that has on the field length.

A *USA date in character form is defined by RPG as being 10 characters long. When it is in a fixed length field its length will correctly report as 8. Test the varying length field (sans zero) and it will report a length of 9. I suspect at that point that RPG simply says "That can't possibly be valid" and gives up.

If this is the case then adding the line: %len(varfieldname) = 10 immediately prior to the %date operation might fix it.


Jon Paris

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