RE: Bug in opcode TESTN!!!

[Sue Underwood <sueu@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vijosh,

Because of the way RPG handles signed numbers, the right-most character of 
the field may contain the EBCDIC representation of A-R and still be 
considered numeric, since thses are the same representations as signed 
(+or-) digits 0-9.  I would suggest a constant definition of '0123456789' 
and use the CHECK opcode against your field.

Sue



-----Original Message-----
From:   Vijosh A [SMTP:VijoshA@alfuttaim.co.ae]
Sent:   Wednesday, April 28, 1999 3:31 AM
To:     'Forum RPG'
Subject:        Bug in opcode TESTN!!!

Hi,

I have come across the following problem while using the opcode TESTN.

Prob: While testing a character field entry for Numeric, it so happens that
if all the contents of the field  are numbers except the last one which may
be an alphabet, still TESTN shows it as numeric.

Possible Reason : After doing some trials on this, I came to the conclusion
that, in the case of a negative number DB2 stores the negative sign in the
PF with a character at the end which indicates the sign. E.g.: 
 },R,H...etc.
So if this alphabet figures in the earlier mentioned value given to TESTN
then it shows it as Numeric. For testing this you may add values  -1...-9
into a database and then do a DSPPFM.

Question: I wanted to know whether the reason for wrong result given by
TESTN is the same as the one I have mentioned above or is there something
else to it. For solving my problem I had to write certain extra lines of
code to avoid TESTN. Is there any solution which will avoid my extra lines
of code, and do it with one opcode?

Thanks & Regards
Vijosh
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