UNPACKing the COBOL packed numeric data.

mail_ssb · New User Joined: 26 Mar 2005 Posts: 17

Hello,

Assume some input record contains all packed numeric data. I would like to unpack the digits for reporting purpose. I know ASSEMBLER has unpack instruction. Is there some way one can do this in Enterprise COBOL...?

Thanks for help.

priya · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:14 pm

Simply move COMP-3 to DISPLAY item before creating the report. it will work.

mmwife · Super Moderator Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 1592

If you're going to print the field it makes more sense to move it to the ediited field in the report line. The edited field could look something like

PIC ----9.99

If you moved a negative 123.45 to it, it would print as -123.45. If you moved a positive 6.54 to it, it would print as bbb6.54, where the "b"s are spaces.

mail_ssb · New User Joined: 26 Mar 2005 Posts: 17

Hi Priya,

I am sorry, I did not get that. Did you mean that I need to move packed numbers directly into a variable of type 9.

E.g. Say, input is 2 byte comp-3. Should I move this into 9(4) variable of a report layout...? I dont think, that works.

Let me know, if I understood it wrong. Thanks for your help.