To trim or not to trim?

Hello all,

I have a question about string manipulation. Here's the scenario:


* Three fields I'm combining into one 10-character text field with dashes between the values

* The three fields have these attributes:

o First field is numeric, length 10, no decimals

o Second is character, length 50

o Third is numeric, length 10, no decimals

I'm using the %CHAR BIF to convert the numeric fields into character fields, and then using %TRIM. From what I can see of the data, the significant values of each field, complete with dashes, would theoretically fit into my 10-character field, even though the lengths of any one of the three is as long by itself as my result field.

When I run my program, I get the value of the first field, with a dash after it, and the value of the second, and that's it, like so:

Field1: 36
Field2: 002
Field3: 3208

Becomes "36-2" in my result field. Now, I'm guessing there's a reason that the dash and the third field are getting cut off, but for the life of me I don't know what it is. If it was some sort of size constraint, I would think that all I would see is the first field to begin with, since it is 10 long, just like my result field. The reason may be really obvious, but I'm sure not seeing it. Can anyone out there enlighten me on why this is working this way? Thanks in advance.

Bill Howie
Software Developer
AmTrust North America


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