Re: Philosophical question...define table to be load from external data with integer or decimal fields...

David,

As I mentioned, the data is coming into the i, not going out; so the i is
the consumer. In any event, wouldn't some sort of integer be the most
portable?

Charles


On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 1:55 PM, David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 1/22/2014 12:51 PM, Charles Wilt wrote:

I'm creating a new table to hold data received from an external
source.

So MyField is a 5 digit number...

I could defined this as Packed/Zoned 5,0 Or I could use integer (or
even small integer since the current number of values is less than
1000)

Since I know DB2 and RPG for that matter perform best with integer,
I'm leaning that direction. But I can't help but think that Packed
(5,0) is more correct.

I use this technique extensively to send data back & forth between RPG
code and Java code.

For maximum flexibility, I suggests using zoned. This way your consumer
can handle the data regardless of the language or environment.

IMO, performance shouldn't be a serious concern. The few extra
microseconds you might get from using integer or packed shouldn't make a
difference. If it does, you've got bigger problems.

david


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