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buggy fun or funny bug

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    buggy fun or funny bug

    Most of the time I examine calculations in the interactive window.
    What should the answer be of this calculation?

    ??val(left("8D93",4))

    How curious is the answer while I asssumed it should cause an error.

    Can one explain why not?

    Ton


    A5V10-Build 2653-3515
    Most things are simple but unfortunately only after the first time

    #2
    Re: buggy fun or funny bug

    Ton,

    I see the same thing in V9. If you change the D to an A, B, G, K, etc it seems to respond with the correct answer of 8. But the D or E in that position causes a strange result. If you add another letter after the D it also changes to the correct answer. I would suggest you submit a bug report.
    Jeff Ryder

    Comment


      #3
      Re: buggy fun or funny bug

      VAL expects a number and it interprets a string with one 'E' in it as a number in scientific notation. Not sure about 'D' because Alpha doesn't document its data types very well, but it may mean something.

      I suggest using character operators to strip off a leading number rather than using VAL.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: buggy fun or funny bug

        Hi Ton,

        Originally posted by Ton Spies View Post
        Most of the time I examine calculations in the interactive window.
        What should the answer be of this calculation?

        ??val(left("8D93",4))

        How curious is the answer while I asssumed it should cause an error.

        Can one explain why not?
        As explained already, VAL() is interpreting the character string as Exponential notation.

        Mantissa "E" exponent otherText

        where E can also be a D, and the mantissa and exponent can be a positive or negative number.

        The reason probably has to do with VAL() being a compiled "C" code function, and is not intended to return just the leading number only of a mixed string, although it's been done this way in Alpha practically forever. The question is whether anyone was using it with a string that had that format. The moment the character after the D or E is non-numeric, it works as expected.

        I'd say it's not a "bug" as much as a documentation issue, but it could be called either way by people. The question is which way Alpha believes it should go.

        It does have potential impact on code I have seen, including possibly, my own! Now, I will have to go and review all my code to find out if there any cases that might fit this case!

        Added:
        And a short term easy solution is
        VAL(chrtran(originaltext,"DEde","||||"'))
        Last edited by csda1; 01-04-2010, 03:42 PM.
        Regards,

        Ira J. Perlow
        Computer Systems Design


        CSDA A5 Products
        New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
        CSDA Barcode Functions

        CSDA Code Utility
        CSDA Screen Capture


        Comment


          #5
          Re: buggy fun or funny bug

          For me it's totally incredable.

          ??val(left("8D93",4))
          8000000000000000300000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

          I'll forward this snippet of code to my bank to use for my bankstatement only. (With such an amount the pos of neg sign is absolutely irrelevant)

          Anyway thanks all for your encouraging


          Isn�t it time you stop wasting your time Ira? You have that 'code jump' utility. Use it, it works great.

          Ton
          Most things are simple but unfortunately only after the first time

          Comment


            #6
            Re: buggy fun or funny bug

            Originally posted by Ton Spies View Post
            Isn�t it time you stop wasting your time Ira? You have that 'code jump' utility. Use it, it works great.
            Unfortunately, it doesn't work here. I have some other unpublished search abilities, but it will still take some time to check the code.

            I have about 2000 hits in about 300 functions. Only a few ever extract a leading number off a string, and most of the time, it's in a delimited string, but it needs to be done! :(
            Regards,

            Ira J. Perlow
            Computer Systems Design


            CSDA A5 Products
            New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
            CSDA Barcode Functions

            CSDA Code Utility
            CSDA Screen Capture


            Comment

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