Whats does this mean?

[ady]

convert('.','',trim(l_SuperListInfo_1.ZPROMID:''))


What does the text in RED mean?. The data type of the ZPROMID column is decimal.

The column is being converted from CHAR to DECIMAL using a MODIFY stage and then before writing it to a SEQ file, the above derivation is given. Can anyone please let me know what that does ?

[chulett]

A colon is the concatenation operator and for some reason an empty string is being appended to the field. [shrug]

[ady]

Hmm ... thts wht I was wondering about .. Input datatype was CHAR 8, Output datatype is DECIMAL 8 , I thought that may be a reason why it was done so...

[wnogalski]

Remove it an check what happens

[narasimha]

Whats does this mean?

That's an interesting Topic name

[I_Server_Whale]

Whats does this mean?

That's an interesting Topic name

Perhaps, meaningless

[ray.wurlod]

Find out who created the expression and ask them!

Looks like a clumsy attempt to force an implicit conversion to string so that the Trim() function can be applied. But it's wrong.

The proper way is to use an appropriate conversion function, such as StringToDecimal() in a Transformer stage or string_from_decimal() in a Modify stage.

[ady]

I removed it and tried to run .... it gives out the same output !

.....

[ray.wurlod]

It would in a server/BASIC expression. Appending no characters to a string returns the original string.

This is also true in a parallel expression, except that concatenation to a Decimal data type is prohibited. (You have marked the job type as parallel.)

[ady]

Find out who created the expression and ask them!

Looks like a weird attempt to force an implicit conversion to string so that the Trim() function can be applied. But it's wrong.

The proper way is to use an appropriate conversion function, such as StringToDecimal() in a Transformer stage or string_from_decimal() in a Modify stage.

Sorry abt the wrong place posted at...


I think you are right .... The field is modified in the MODIFY stage with this statement

ZPROMID:decimal[8,0]= decimal_from_string(ZPROMID)

And then in the following transformer this is the derivation for the field

convert('.','',trim(l_SuperListInfo_1.ZPROMID:''))

[ray.wurlod]

So that ZPROMID is a string by the time it gets into this expression, and appending a zero-length string to it leaves it unaffected.

Looks like the problem for the original developer was between the keyboard and the chair.

[I_Server_Whale]

Looks like the problem for the original developer was between the keyboard and the chair.

[narasimha]

Looks like the problem for the original developer was between the keyboard and the chair.

Something like this -
keyboard:original developer:chair

[kumar_s]

If the Modify stage is just of the give purpose, why cant't both transformer and Modify stage be clubbed? You can perform the task in Transformer stage itself.