RE: %CHAR()

[Buck Calabro <buck.calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Westdorp wrote:

>It is indeed semantics and I am only taking about numbers.
>Regardless of the format of the number (zoned, packed, 
>binary, hex, etc) the value of a five position 123 is 00123.

And the "value" of a negative number?  I can honestly say that I've never
seen anybody write a negative amount like "-000123".  I concur that the
documentation needs clarification, but the examples clearly demonstrate how
the BIF works for time and date fields.  They're left-adjusted (see the
middle EVAL.)  There's no reason to suspect that the behaviour is any
different for numeric values.

You've had the good fortune of not monitoring the list several years ago
when the common question was the exact reverse of yours: "How can I put an
edited numeric value in a string, i.e. Your balance is 123.45?"  It seems to
me that IBM created %char() to solve that.  Especially for date and
timestamp values, which can't be "transformed" to character by %edit().

I'm going to email the documentation folks at torrcf@ca.ibm.com (see RPG
Reference section entitled "How to Send in Your Comments") and ask them to
detail the fact that the values are left-adjusted, zero suppressed, leading
minus sign (for numerics!)  May I suggest that you add your voice?

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
"Nothing is so firmly believed as
 that which we least know" -- Michel Montaigne
Visit the Midrange archives at http://www.midrange.com
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