Re: Problems with null in a report with Informix-4GL

In article <34e02f8d.6262187@gate.idg.no>, Nils Myklebust <Nils.Myklebust@nmdata.com> wrote: >This is because 4GL is based on C and uses the strange C idea of a 0 >byte as a terminator for a string. It doesn't change your 0 byte to a >blank. It stops printing when it finds the null byte. Anyting after >that is not printed at all. > >>(let a = ascii 0, ...etc. ) to a report to use it with an HP printer. >> >>I think it changes it to a blank character. No, it's actually deliberate -- starting with 4.1-something, ASCII 0 was documented to produce SPACE when used in all statements except PRINT, but to actually produce a zero-byte when used in PRINT. Check the release notes or the 1996 editions of the 4GL Supplements. (Don't shoot the messenger -- I fought the SPACE interpretations tooth and nail at the time... but, as usual, I lost...) -- Alan Denney yosemite_at_netcom.com "Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness." -- W. S. Churchill