> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Hirsch [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>  "Emerson, Tom # El Monte" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > now that I think about it, ^L is 12 decimal, or 0x0C in hex, which
> > is NOT a legal "COMP3" value
>
> You're forgetting the sign nibble.  A COMP-3 value of zero,
> or any positive
> number with a last digit of zero would have '0x0C' as its last byte.

>ack< I stand corrected -- most of the fields I deal with are usage DISPLAY,
and unsigned to begin with [we deal with positive numbers primarilly, and
the few cases where "negative" numbers are appropriate are already tagged
elsewhere in the record as being a "credit" value...]  This, of course, is
far more appropriate when dealing with cross-system data as there is no
ambiguity over little things like signs, byte order (little-endian vs.
big-endian) and the actual representation of digits.  [well, ok, I suppose
if you're considering EBCDIC vs. ASCII, there might be some confusion... ;)
]