Re: Question on Cobol Move statement - mixed move x to zzz9.

Michael Schey wrote:
> 18 year cobol veteran here.  Stumped trying to come up with a
> technical explanation on this one. I know why this is happening but I
> can't explain it to the higher ups because I can't explain it to
> myself.
>
> 05  WS-PROP-PREMISE                PIC X(04).
>
>
> 05  WS-FORMAT-4                 PIC ZZZ9.
>
>
> WS-PROP-PREMISE has a value of  3.   That is 3 followed by 3 spaces.
>
> The code MOVE WS-PROP-PREMISE to WS-FORMAT-4 results in
>
> 3000
>
> Why?
>
> When the sending field has 0003 we get 3 in the result.  This is what
> we are expecting from the sending system.  Now they are 'sometimes'
> sending us a 3 followed by 3 spaces, which gives us the 3000 in the
> result field.

One way to explain it:

In the original (asume ASCII), you have 33303030. The move routine
(evidently) moves only the right-most nibbles, x3x0x0x0 ==> 3000 and is
indifferent to the left-most nibbles