I need to copy standard file using cpyf or equivalent by specific date range, but I need to convert a column with a character text string into a numeric field on the copied file. Is there a way to do that during or after the copy? It’s conflicting with a cross reference report I run in crystal reports which cannot cross links that are not of the same type.
Thanks, Corey
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Hmmm... good point (I think). I'm not up on CR, so not sure of all of its features.
Creating a SQL view seemed likely, and your general method is as good as any to create it. But I'm not yet clear why there is an issue in CR. I thought perhaps one file has a field defined character while a related file has the same data in a numeric field. But shouldn't CR allow an SQL statement to link such files anyway?
Tom
Corey:
Don't hesitate to ask followup questions if you need clarification in the future. Questions might be "How do I find out my operating system version?" or "How can I display the field description?" You put enough points on this to get premium help, IMO. I'm pretty sure you could have gotten a lot more info out of this.
For what it's worth for future questions.
Tom
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by: tliottaPosted on 2006-09-11 at 18:44:06ID: 17499232
Corey:
It's not totally clear what you need. Can you elaborate on what is meant by "standard file"? Is that an externally-described database file? Does the character field have an external field description?
When spoken of in terms of "cpyf", the answer to those questions would normally be "Yes." However, there is a less frequent situation where the answer would be "No" to each of the questions. The most appropriate solution can depend on which situation you have.
Also, is the character field completely filled with numeric digits? or does it include leading and/or trailing blanks? Does it contain any other characters such as decimal points or sign characters?
If it's just a character field that contains all numeric digits, such as a seven-digit ProductCode like '0012345', then you might get off very easy simply by creating a logical file that redefines the field as zoned-decimal. If it's slightly more complex, it might be possible to create a view instead. And if there are numerous complications, we might need more detail and even a bit of programming.
Please provide info on what version of OS/400 you have plus a little more detail on the field. You might run the DSPFFD command against the file and copy/paste the field definition here.
Tom