Re: Another RPG Suggestion

Hans,

>>Regarding changing data type, I'd like to know more about
what you really want.  In particular, are you primarily
interested in defining a numeric field like say a zoned
decimal field and change the format to packed?  Or do you
need to define a character field like a numeric field?<<

As a matter of fact, just today I happened to come upon this situation where a
composite entry field defined as 9-character; the first 2 positions are
character data and the last 7 positions are a 7-digit number.  I need to TESTN
the 7-digit portion to make sure it's a valid numeric before I move it into a
numeric field.  So... I needed a character field that was the same length as the
numeric database field, but I didn't want to hard-code it.  I ended up defining
an oversized character field using VARYING and then setting the length of the
field...  (as follows):

      * Screen field StrIT# is a 9-character field (made up of a 2-character
      *   warehouse code and a 7-digit tag number
      * Database field Str35u is defined as a 2-character field
      * Database field Tag35u is defined as a 7-digit, 0-decimal packed field
      *
     d Tag35u_alpha    s             15a   Varying
     d Tag#_Length     s              3p 0
      *
     c                   Eval      %Len( Tag35u_alpha ) = %Len( Tag35u )
     c                   Eval      Tag35u_alpha = %subst( StrIT#
     c                                                  : %Len( Str35u ) + 1
     c                                                  : %Len( Tag35u )     )
     c                   TestN                   Tag35u_alpha         82

Of course, if you "bif" the TestN opcode and allow substrings, i.e.,

     c                   If        %TestN( %subst( StrIT#
     c                                           : %Len( Str35u ) + 1
     c                                           : %Len( Tag35u )     ))

That would solve my problem, too.    ;-)

- Dan Bale





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