Re: change data type

Don't think you can take a character field with a packed number and do a 
testn on it.  For example, one sample 2 character field representing a 
valid packed number would be 
char2=x'001F'; // Note:  the x'...' means hex
I don't think testn would fly against that.
While this may test fine
char5='0123J';  // Certain letters in the last position may indicate a 
"sign" (plus, minus) over a number.
This may test fine with TESTN but be totally meaningless in your 
application.
You could try reading the flat record into a datastructure.  Then with 
judicious use of MONITOR and ON-ERROR test each field
D recds
D   name                  20a
D   wage                    5p 2
...
read file ....; // use the option to read into a data structure.
monitor;
wage=wage+0;
On-error;
  // wage ain't right
End-mon;

Rob Berendt