RE: DDS screen: how to ensure field keyed is numeric for alpha-descri bed field

["Richard Jackson" <richardjackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For what it's worth:

 

JDEdwards World software - the RPG product - does this all the time.  By "all the time" I mean they do it for every field that defined as numeric in the data dictionary that shows up on a screen. 

 

The screen field is data-type character and the user can type anything they want into it.  JDE has a "numeric scrub" routine.  It reads the value left to right throwing away anything that isn't a digit, decimal point, or sign.  Then it moves the number into a zoned numeric field, aligns the decimal and sets the sign. 

 

Before display, they move the numeric field into an array, insert the editing, then move it to the character display field. 

 

Let 'em type anything they want.  Take out only the good stuff. 

 

Any you performance types wondered why JDE used so many cycles :)  The trick used to perform decimal alignment still brings tears to my eyes. 

Richard Jackson
mailto:richardjackson@richardjackson.net
www.richardjacksonltd.com
Voice: 1 (303) 808-8058
Fax:   1 (303) 663-4325

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Dave Schnee
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 12:56 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: DDS screen: how to ensure field keyed is numeric for alpha-descri bed field

At 12:23 PM 7/11/00 , you wrote:

Our database cust# is an alpha field, but we only want to allow numeric entries into the field.

What is a good way to ensure data keyed into a field is numeric using DDS screens?

I can't chain to the cust file in some cases because ranges are allowed, for example two fields exist on the screen to key a start cust# and an end cust#.

Also, I dont want to allow an entry such as "0   0   0" (problem, spaces in between).

What is the simplest way to accomplish this?

TIA

Define the customer # fields on the screen as numeric.  Do all the checking (e.g., "from" is not greater than "to", range checks, etc.) on these numeric fields.  THEN move the numeric fields to alpha fields to actually USE as customer # in your application.

Dave Schnee,
Barsa Consulting Group, LLC.