Chris Breemer ([log in to unmask]) asks about Zoned Decimal type as supported by Transact/3000 and DD/3000. > We need to support the datatype, however. > > Thanks for your response !! > -- > > :) > Chris Breemer > [log in to unmask] > Chris, On the HP3000, Zoned data type is basically numbers stored as characters. If the data is UNSIGNED, then that exactly what it is. If the data is SIGNED, then the last (rightmost) character is "overpunched" with the sign. You can decode the data using this table I scavenged from the HP COBOL II Quick Reference Guide: unsigned positive negative 0 { } 1 A J 2 B K 3 C L 4 D M 5 E N 6 F O 7 G P 8 H Q 9 I R For example: An IMAGE database type Z4 is bascially the same as an X4 in length (4 bytes). The value +1234 would be "123D", -1234 would be "123M" and if the data is Unsigned, the value is "1234". Unfortunately, you have to know the data is Signed or Unsigned. Otherwise, you need to check the last byte to see if it's a number or letter. Rich -- ______________________________________________________________________ ________ Dynamic Information Systems Corp. | \!DISC / Rich Trapp | My opinions are my own. \ / OMNIDEX Product Manager - IMAGE/SQL | With any luck they're \ / Phone : 303 444-4000 | correct ;-) \/ E-mail: [log in to unmask] | ----------------------------------------------------------------------