I recommended 'against' mixing signed and unsigned values. There is a route for conversion. I have just tested it, and it works. A decimal floating-point (DFP) value can be converted to unsigned packed using the instruction Convert to unsigned packed and an unsigned packed value can be converted to DFP using the instruction Convert From Unsigned Packed. (Convert To Signed Packed and Convert from Signed Packed instructions are also available.
About the rest of Steve Comstock's strange post, I can only suggest that he 1) read or reread the PrOp section I cited and 2) conduct some experiments. Unsigned packed decimal exists, and its y-byte values contain 2y four-bit binary coded digits. For the convenience of others I quote briefly <begin extract> In the unsigned-packed-decimal format, each byte contains two decimal digits (D) and therte is no sign. </end extract> The usefulness of this format is open to question. Its existence is not. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
