Re: free form alternatives?

>> No, I am not really worried about the difference in cost between MOVE and
%editc.
Well, of course i wasn't talking about compile time, which should be performed
just one time (or several, depending on error you find, but always an irrilevant
nuber of time comparing to execute times) but about resource (es. CPU time)
during execution of program. If you need to execute the %editc() statement some
hundred of thousand times in you app, you may end with a longer executing
program, which will end with you user wait for the app end.

Of course, by your previous statement, you seem to 'suggest' to write bad code
(i.e. not try to optimize code) and, if you AS won't execute it fast, well, just
buy a bigger one....

>> Oh, and why do you think %editc is more complex than %char?
Because %editc() has a more complex work to do (decide if need
decimalpoint/thiusand point, check for decedit value, suppress/not suppres zero,
etc) that %char() which should act in a more linear way (at least, FWIK,
%editc(myval:'X') might be converte in retunr(%char(Myval)  :-)))

>> I would think that %char has more work to do.
Dunno. I think i'll go and test for it  :-)))

But, as you can see, %char() has only to convert number to string, while
%editc() perform the same conversion plus sep/dec/zrero suppress code, so as
first impression i think the secodn one is heavyer (may be wrong, of course...)