On 4/24/2013 8:43 AM, Phil Smith wrote:
Suppose you have values that you're converting between character and packed
decimal, in both directions at various times. You're a middleman, so you don't
know what the application is going to be using the values for.
For a non-negative value, packed decimal could be either positive or unsigned.
Note that character decimal can also be positive or unsigned.
PACK and UNPK preserve the sign settings in both directions
What do folks usually do? Is it normal for code to actually care? That is, if we say "Heck
with it, we can't tell, so we'll just mark it positive", is that likely to cause problems? Or
is use of unsigned rare enough that this is essentially a non-issue? (Hint: I'd like that last to
be the case!) Obviously a "sign=" value could be passed around with the value, but that
kind of metadata isn't in the stream now, so I'd rather not add it.
Any and all ideas gratefully accepted...
...phsiii
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