Re: Sorting a program described file

[PaulMmn <PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Booth--

I don't think I read all of the posts on this thread, but I think 
someone mentioned the LF over the PF...  but using substring 
definitions in the LF.   That will let you divvy up the single field 
in the record into multiple fields.

I think the question you have (and I have right now) is if the 
substring lets you declare the field with type Packed.

If not--  you might be better off with a data structure in the program.

Sorry, but I don't have a manual handy to check the substring specs.

--Paul E Musselman
--PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



At 5:43 PM -0600 12/24/08, Booth Martin wrote:
> I follow all of that, Paul.  The piece I am missing is that I want to
> have a logical file, and use that logical as an externally defined file
> in my RPG program.  I am not wanting to sort on the 4-column, packed,
> 7/2 field, but I do want to get the right value for the field.  How does
> the RPG program know that the field is a packed numeric and not a 4-char
> field?  Where do I define that?