Hello,

I have a slight problem with the following Decode function:

SSN4/A4V=SUBSTR(9, SYVPER1_SSN, 6, 9, 4, 'A4V');
CardServ/A13V=SOARHLD3.SEG01.SYVSTAL_ID ||DECODE J15.SYVPER1.SYVPER1_SSN ( 'FILE' '9999' '' '9999' ELSE SSN4/A4V=SUBSTR(9, SYVPER1_SSN, 6, 9, 4, 'A4V'));

What this does is check for a SSN. If the SSN is either not there or labeled as 'FILE' the value 9999 is returned and displayed. However, if the SSN is there, then the last four digits of the SSN are concatenated to the the student's Campus ID. The problem that I am having is that this does not seem to work.

I get an error that says : (FOC224) SYNTAX ERROR: DECODE

This error occurs only when I'm adding the default value:

 ELSE SSN4/A4V=SUBSTR(9, SYVPER1_SSN, 6, 9, 4, 'A4V') 

When I do the following it works:

DEFINE FILE SOARHLD3
SSN4/A4=IF J15.SYVPER1.SYVPER1_SSN EQ 'FILE' OR J15.SYVPER1.SYVPER1_SSN EQ '' THEN '9999' ELSE SUBSTR(9, SYVPER1.SYVPER1.SYVPER1_SSN, 6, 9, 4, 'A4V');
CardServ/A15=SOARHLD3.SEG01.SYVSTAL_ID||J15.SYVPER1.SSN4;
END

 

I did not use the decode function in the code sample above.

I'm curious as to why the decode function doesn't work.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FP Mod Chuck,

SSN4/A4V=SUBSTR(9, SYVPER1_SSN, 6, 9, 4, 'A4V');
CardServ/A13V=SOARHLD3.SEG01.SYVSTAL_ID ||DECODE J15.SYVPER1.SYVPER1_SSN ( 'FILE' '9999' '' '9999' ELSE SSN4/A4V=SUBSTR(9, SYVPER1_SSN, 6, 9, 4, 'A4V'));

This is invalid syntax.

1) In the DEFINE for CardServ, you cannot use DECODE like this - you cannot concatenate the result of the DECODE to another column.

2) You DEFINE CardServ with a format of A4V but you have a different column being defined (SSN4/A4V=SUBSTR...) in the DECODE statement.

3) "If the SSN is ... not there" - does this mean it is null? You probably cannot use the DECODE value of blanl (''). The best way to deal with this is to use IF THEN ELSE.

quote:

SSN4/A4V=SUBSTR(9, SYVPER1_SSN, 6, 9, 4, 'A4V')

You can't use = in the ELSE part of the decode. Try EDIT(SYVPER1_SSN,'$$$$$9999') instead. That'll give you the last 4 digits of SSN.

I didn't know that you couldn't concatenate the results from Decode. That is very helpful to know. Thank you.

Anguel

You can concatenate decode as an expression, but you need to be careful about the left-hand-side format and about strong and weak concatenation. Also, remember that the code/decode pairs and the else must be *literals* and not fields (or expressions). In this case, you really should read the documentation on the DECODE operation.

Try this:

DEFINE FILE CAR
MYA/A25V = '->DECODE: ' |
     DECODE COUNTRY('ENGLAND'  'WOW'  'FRANCE'  'MAN' ELSE 'OK')
     || ' COOL' ;
END
-RUN
TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT COUNTRY MYA
END
-RUN


 COUNTRY     MYA                                                               
 -------     ---                                                               
 ENGLAND     ->DECODE: WOW COOL       
 JAPAN       ->DECODE: OK COOL        
 ITALY       ->DECODE: OK COOL        
 W GERMANY   ->DECODE: OK COOL        
 FRANCE      ->DECODE: MAN COOL