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In our experience the high-order 4 bits of the sign byte is often not correct in customer data.
For unsigned fields it should contain an X'F' but this is often not the case.
If we were to generate an SSA, this would only return the required segment when the high-order 4 bits of the sign byte contains an X'F'.
We are not going to make this change because it will change the behaviour of FM/IMS and upset many of our customers.
To get the behaviour the customer has requested, all they need to do is prefix the field reference number with #u instead of #.
So they have a workaround.
These are my reasons for rejecting this request.
Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Development Tooling
Product - IBM File Manager
For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - WebSphere
Product family - Enterprise Tooling
Product - IBM File Manager
Reading the Developer Comments below sounds like we can use >>
#U:fieldname in batch mode but not online mode, correct ?
Also the comment was made “Why does the customer prefer not to enter that field”.
Which field, the literal #U or the SSA value ?
Developer Comment “its one extra character”.
What is the 1 extra character, the actual number after #U ?
We have made certain enhancements - the #Unnn or (#U:fieldname -where allowed XML templates and batch functions) can be used to instruct FM to make character comparison as opposed to numeric comparisons and therefore ensure SSAs can be used. The issue with PIC 9999 zoned is the data can still contain an overpunch sign and can be validly interpreted irrespective of the copybook declaration - therefore FM needs an external directive to do the character comparison which is what the #U has been provided for. Why does the customer prefer not to enter that field as we don't see why this is a problem its one extra character to make sure a non numeric comparison is performed for a numeric field.
Can we get an update on the status. The customer wants to replace a DataVantage product with the IBM File Manager software. This would help close the deal. TX.
Any chance this will ever happen? This is more of a problem than a request for enhancement.