Data Transformation Engine Functions and Expressions Reference Guide

Chapter 3 - Function Reference BCDTOINT

Functions and Expressions Reference Guide

BCDTOINT

The

BCDTOINT function converts an item from BCD (binary coded decimal) format

to integer format. The binary value that is returned has a form native to the

machine on which the map is being run.

Syntax

BCDTOINT (single-text-expression , single-integer-expression)

Meaning

BCDTOINT (BCD_item_to_convert , length_of_output)

Returns

This function returns a single-binary-number.

BCD_item_to_convert is converted from BCD (binary coded decimal) format to

its integer value.

Numbers in BCD format have two decimal digits in each byte. Each half-byte,

therefore, can contain a binary value from 0000 (which represents the digit 0)

through 1001 (which represents the digit 9). Based on this definition,

! If any half-byte of the BCD number contains the binary values 1101 or

1111, that half-byte is ignored.

! If any half-byte contains the binary values 1010, 1011, 1100, or 1110, the

output of the function is NONE.

The length of the output binary number is specified by length_of_output. The

length must be 1, 2, or 4. If it is any other value, the length is assumed to be

BCDTOINT returns a binary value of the form native to the machine on which

the map is being run. The value can therefore be used in arithmetic operations

or compared to other numeric values. It should not be used for bit

manipulations, because the order of the bytes in the number is dependent on

the platform on which the map is being run (e.g., on a PC, the low-order byte

is first, while on a mainframe, the low-order byte is first.)

Example

BCDTOINT ( bcdAmount Field , 2 )

If the bcdAmount Field contains x’37’ in BCD format, this example returns

the integer value of 37.