Would someone give me a refresher on this, please?

What are the ramifications of changing the ACTUAL format in a MFD from I4 to I5? Can a I4 field store numbers greater then 9999? Inquiring minds need to know.

Someone changed one as it will, in the very near future, contains values above 9999. Now it does not work with the current data.

Is the following correct?

1) The current definition of ACTUAL=I5 does not work because it identifies the actual field size / allocation as being a Integer five (I5) rather then an an integer four (I4). In doing so, it is reading five bits for each store_num, four of which are associated with its actual field size and the fifth being the first of the next value. This cascades throughout the field list. Also, the JOIN to or from this MFD need to be joined to field sizes where the actual sizes are the same.

2) On the other hand, the USAGE can differ according to the needs of the display. In this case, the USAGE is set to I11 which need not be as large seeing that we do not have any store numbers beyond 4 digits, I5 would be adequate. We will get in to the five digit store number in our near future.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug,

Changing from I4 to I5 will not work without rebuilding the database. The steps would be:
1) rebuild (dump)
2) change the master from I4 to I5
3) do a create file xxxx
4) rebuild (load)
This must be done in a persistent environment such as involking edastart from a dos prompt. Good Luck

Thanks Gary,

That's a good answer if it were a FOCUS DB...

My apologies, I should have mentioned that this is not a FOCUS DB... It's actually on 1010Data.

BTW: What's the max integer (value) which can be stored in an I4?

Doug

What database are you talking about?

In a FOCUS db this can be done with no repercussions, but then you do not declare an ACTUAL for FOCUS db, only USAGE(FORMAT), so I suspect that this is SQL based.

(After you're response)
The ACTUAL must be what is actually in the table. The USAGE is how you want to see the data presented in a report. There are a few automatic conversions that can happen, e.g. ACTUAL=I4, USAGE=A4.

Maximum value in an I4 is 2,147,483,647 I believe, or something around there, hence the I11 which allows for the -ve sign.

Alan,

quote:

What database are you talking about?

Sorry about the late mention of this: This is 1010data, See more about 1010data.

Doug

This is SQL based, so the ACTUAL cannot be changed unless the data structures changes. The USAGE can be based on the ACTUAL to USAGE table in the ddlang manual.

Thanks for the confirmation Alan,

We were discussing this, after someone changed an ACTUAL=I4 to ACTUAL=I5, and that was what I was I presenting. They finally bought in to it.

Case Closed...