RE: Testing for valid numeric in an alpha field

["Stone, Joel" <StoneJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually I think your RPG test is not reliable.  I think that TESTN will let
certain non-numerics slip through, only to explode sometime later (probably
in the middle of the night)!

In RPG it is much safer to use '0123456789' CHECK  variable_name to ensure
numerics.

In COBOL, if you only want to test the first part of a field, try

If VNCOMPANY (1:4) is numeric
   move VNCOMPANY to ws-vnd-company
else
   move zeros     to ws-vnd-company
end-if. 


-----Original Message-----
From: Dan [mailto:dbcerpg@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 9:30 AM
To: cobol400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Testing for valid numeric in an alpha field


I know how to do this in RPG but not Cobol:

I've got a 15-character alpha that is supposed to contain a 4-digit number
left-justified.  In my
Cobol program, VNCOMPANY is a 15-character alpha field and WS-VND-COMPANY is
a 4-digit numeric. 
When I do this:
    MOVE VNCOMPANY TO WS-VND-COMPANY.
and VNCOMPANY contains '40             ', I get a decimal data error.

In RPG, I'd use a MOVEL and a TESTN.  Off the top of my head, the only way I
can see doing this in
Cobol is to check the first four bytes of the field individually to be in
the range of '0' through
'9'.  (Bytes 5-15 would have to be blank for our validation purposes.)

Any suggestions?

TIA, Dan

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