RE: Data conversion - Binary to Character

>When I substring out the binary
>(4 positions in the buffer) to a 4
>alpha field and try to move it
>to a 9b 0 field, my program blows up.

The binary conversion might be easier to do than the packed conversion, but
neither is too terrible.

D* Convert binary to decimal
D Binary4         DS                  Inz
D  Binary4Chr1            1      1
D  Binary4Chr2            2      2
D  Binary4Chr3            3      3
D  Binary4Chr4            4      4
D  Binary4Dec             1      4i 0

eval Binary4Dec = 0
eval Binary4Chr4 = singleByte
eval digit = Binary4Dec

Now, if this is the low order byte, save the number:
eval number = digit

If this is the next higher order byte, multiply it by 256 (2 to the 8th) and
increment:
eval number = number + (digit * 256)

If this is the next highest, multiply by 65536 and increment and so on.  I
haven't got a code sample I'm able to share with the public, sorry.

I posted a bit of code for testing packed number validity to the RPG list in
Jan 2001.  See that post in the archives http://archive.midrange.com and the
follow-up where Barbara Morris kindly corrected my mistakes AND made some
very good constructive comments on improving things.
  --buck