daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond) (07/07/88)
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).
Any suggestions on a means of accurately printing a less-than-4 decimal
place value in a 4-decimal-place picture would be much appreciated.
Please answer by e-mail or followup.
Dave Hammond
UUCP: {uunet|sun|...}!hombre!marob!daveh
-----------------------------------------------------rbp@investor.UUCP (Bob Peirce) (07/11/88)
> > 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). > > Any suggestions on a means of accurately printing a less-than-4 decimal > place value in a 4-decimal-place picture would be much appreciated. > You don't say which release you are using, but the one we have on our Altos 68000, called as acego, round up, while the one we have on our altos 3068, called by sacego, truncates. On the latter, we just add 0.00005 for positive numbers and subtract 0.00005 for negative numbers. This adds a lot more code but allows you to handle it the way you want. -- Bob Peirce, Pittsburgh, PA 412-471-5320 uucp: ...!{allegra, bellcore, cadre, idis, psuvax1}!pitt!investor!rbp NOTE: Mail must be < 30K bytes/message
allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) (07/15/88)
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"?) DISCLAIMER: (Unless you're employed by Informix Software, you can skip this.) Yes, O gurus of Informixdom, I have reported this to Altos (from whom the packages were purchased). Whether they report it to you or not is another matter. . . . Disclaimer provided because of what the then Data Language Corp. did to me after a comparison of Progress to Accell. I don't have any great desire to be b*tched at by Informix's tech gurus. -- Brandon S. Allbery, uunet!marque!ncoast!allbery DELPHI: ALLBERY For comp.sources.misc send mail to ncoast!sources-misc
daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond) (07/23/88)
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 ---------------------------------------------------------------
lukas@ihlpf.ATT.COM (00704a-Lukas) (07/28/88)
In article <337@marob.MASA.COM> daveh@marob.UUCP (Dave Hammond) writes: >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: We have found another technique, to avoid the "+.00005". We turn the computer to the west, then only run the programs on sunny days in the afternoon. Appearantly, the extry energy from the sunshine increases the numbers just enough to provide the desired result. I know that some of you out there are going to laugh, but I think that our soulution is every bit as reasonable as the other. -- John Lukas ihnp4!ihlpf!lukas 312-510-6290