Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!marob!daveh
From: daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: INFORMIX reportwriter help!
Message-ID: <337@marob.MASA.COM>
Date: 22 Jul 88 20:55:19 GMT
References: <329@marob.MASA.COM> <8245@ncoast.UUCP>
Reply-To: daveh@marob.UUCP (Dave Hammond)
Organization: 18th Street Construction Company (ESCC). NY, NY
Lines: 45

In article <8245@ncoast.UUCP> allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
>As quoted from <329@marob.MASA.COM> by daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond):
>+---------------
>| Using INFORMIX and its ACE ReportWriter package I am trying to print reports
>| which contain floating point values with from 1 to 4 decimal places (e.g. 1.2,
>| 1.23, 1.234 or 1.2345). It seems no matter what print picture I use, numbers
>| which do not resolve to 4 decimal places are rounded down instead of filled
>| with zeros (e.g. 1.5 prints as 1.4999 instead of 1.5000).
>+---------------
>
>Which Informix, on which computer?  Informix-SQL and Informix-4GL on an
>Altos 1086 does this as well; after hacking at it for a couple of hours I
>concluded that there was a bug in the number-formatting routines.  On the
>other hand, Informix 3.3 on the same machine gets it right.  (And people
>wonder why I prefer "old Informix"?)

I experienced the problem in Informix-SQL 2.x and Informix-4GL on
'286 and '386 machines running SCO Xenix.

I also received an excellent tip from several sources (including an
Informix tech support person) - Simply add a fraction to the printing value
so that it forces the result one decimal place beyond the print picture.
In the case of printing using a 4 decimal place picture, add .00005 and
the value prints correctly. Example:

value = 1.5
`print value using "&.&&##"' results in 1.4999 being printed.

value = 1.5 + .00005
`print value using "&.&&##"' results in 1.5000 being printed.

The Informix tech support fellow said there was an ever-growing list
of disgruntled users concerning this subject. I suggested a print
option on the order of:

print rounded(value) using "&.&&##"
or
print value rounded using "&.&&##"

I don't know what side effects this might present, but it seems a
reasonable solution to me.

Dave Hammond
UUCP:   !{uunet|rutgers|spl1|...}!hombre!{marob|dsix2}!daveh
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