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

Because different system use different endian schemes for multi byte integers they are not really that portable. Since the data is probably arriving as zoned then keep it that way. The relative efficiencies of the different numeric schemes only matter if you are doing math on the value. I there is no math involved then zoned is a simple byte move and as efficient as anything else. Of course if the value arrives as an int and there is no issue with big/little endian issues then keep it as an int.


On 2014-01-22, at 2:31 PM, Charles Wilt <charles.wilt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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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