As an interesting side note, the discussion on zoned-decimal fields touched on the area of negative zero values. As it turns-out, this attribute of computing which doesn't really exist in number theory has value. In processing manufacturing, as in other areas I'm sure, there is a need to differentiate zero from 'missing' in terms of a numeric value. Without the benefit of additional flags (as provided in the SQL standard or even before this standard existed) we've used a negative zero as a means to denote the value is missing. As an example, a numeric field is initialized to negative zero by equating it to %100000, %000000 (2-word REAL). This variable is then used to initialize a record of numeric values which is then written to a DBMS. In my example, this record will be for a specific process test point with individual readings once every hour for 24 hours. Each 24-hour period this record is built and written to a DBMS. When a reading for the particular test is received, the numeric field in the record corrsponding to the hour of the reading is updated with that value. When a retrieval process looks at the record, it cannot compare the numeric fields to -0, because there really is no such value. Instead, it compares the variable to a field initialized with %100000/%000000 and if equal, the particular reading is deemed 'missing'. Otherwise the particular occurrance contains a valid reading from the unit, which indeed might be zero. In this manner, calculations such as averages, etc. are not skewed just because a test reading did not exist and true 'zero' readings are used. Regards -- Jerry Fochtman