Re: Packed field with Blanks in it... how?

["Art Tostaine, Jr." <atostaine@xxxxxxxxx>]

So an unsuccessful read puts blanks in the field? That is weird.  Is it
defined on some other record format?

On Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 9:16 AM Brad Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I am helping a customer with a random problem where a field from a file
> (packed 16,0) is getting filled with blanks.
>
> On a dump we see hex 04040404040.... in it.  And of course it's throwing a
> data decimal error.
>
> I tried to look in the program for something obvious, but it's an old
> monolith of a program with weird columnar RPGIII code.
>
> Anyhow, in what instances would a field read from a file (or even an
> unsuccessful read) that is defined as packed get blanks in it?  The field
> is not manipulated in any way that I can see.
>
> If reads and no record, it should be zero.  If it reads and gets a record,
> it should be the value from the file (in this case, confirmed to be zero..
> and even hex value shows 000000000000000F.
>
> Just grasping at straws I guess.  I've not seen this unless there is an
> overlaying DS on a numeric field that gets set to blanks for some reason.
>
> Bradley V. Stone
> www.bvstools.com
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