RE: %CHAR()

["Westdorp, Tom" <tom.westdorp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This seems *VERY counter-intuitive to me.  If I just want a number literally
converted to character I use %editc and tell it not to edit (which would
then just be c), but if I want it zero suppressed (aka edited) and converted
to character I use %char???  And the main bif for a straight conversion is
not %char but rather %editc with an edit code specified to do nothing???
Now I understand why this isn't in the manuals, because when you write it
down it just doesn't make sense.  ;-)

I now understand how this works, but as to why <scratch head>

btw, Thanks Barbara.  I don't want to have this construed as 'getting on
your case' or anything, I appreciate your explanation and guidance in this
matter and others.  This one seems bass ackwards to me, but I'll get over
it.  There's a lot of stuff in life that doesn't make sense to me... e.g.
Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta Jones.  But that's off topic.

Tom Westdorp

-----Original Message-----
From: bmorris@ca.ibm.com [mailto:bmorris@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 8:58 AM
To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: %CHAR()



>Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 14:28:42 -0800
>From: "Westdorp, Tom" <tom.westdorp@stationcasinos.com>
>
> ...
>I will try the edit code to return the zeroes, but I didn't ask for them
to
>go away. :-) It seems to me that %trim(%char(fieldx)) is right and just
>%char(fieldx) to the same result is wrong.  I'd argue that it's APARable,
>but I'm just one guy and others' opinions may differ.
> ...

Tom, %char(num) isn't intended to be the main "convert numeric to
character" bif, it's just intended as a convenience, to make it easy
to convert numeric to character for "casual" conversions.  It's basically
the same as %trim(%editc(num : 'P')).

%char can only do one thing.  For that one thing we tried to pick the end
result of what's most usually wanted.  The only "customization" available
is the module-wide decision about whether the decimal point is a period
or a comma.  %editc and %editw are still the bifs to choose if you want
customizable conversion from numeric to character.

Barbara


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