Re: Cobol like Comp in Oracle

From: FC <flavio_at_tin.it>
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 00:16:00 GMT
Message-ID: <4HNN9.26174$R45.1202455@news2.tin.it>

"Adam Hapworth" <hap_at_mikomi.org> wrote in message news:a6cb04db.0212230534.4584e724_at_posting.google.com...
> I am working on a conversion of some Cobol transaction formats where
> the receiver is looking for a string which normally comes from Cobol
> as an "s9(4) comp". from what I have gathered this compresses the
> data in half. I am trying to replicate this using PL/SQL. Is there a
> procedure of some kind that will allow me to compress an Oracle Number
> or Char to half its size and then place it into a string.
>
> Adam

The format looks like BCD, each half byte representing a digit, and the sign is coded in a way that I don't remember now. I believe the SQL Loader datatype called DECIMAL is what you are looking for, but this works only for inbound transfers. For outbound transfers you'll have to build your own conversion function.

Bye,
Flavio Received on Mon Dec 23 2002 - 18:16:00 CST