Conversion codes are used to achieve consistency in the storage and output of data. They allow certain types of data to be stored in an internal format that can be easily and efficiently manipulated during operations such as selecting and sorting. Conversions can then translate data into an external format suitable for INFO/ACCESS reports.
Conversion codes are also applied to literal values in INFO/ACCESS queries. The literal value is converted into its internal equivalent before the data is processed. Thus, even though a date is be stored in internal format as 7555, you can access it with a query such as the example below, because the literal 9/6/88 is converted into internal format by the conversion code.
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>LIST ORDERS WITH DATE = "9/6/88" |
Specifically, conversions can be used to format:
Dates (D)
Times (MT)
Decimal numbers (ML and MR)
Conversions can also be used to perform these operations:
Lowercase/uppercase data conversion (MCL, MCU)
Alphabetic/numeric character extraction (MCA, MCN)
Decimal/hexadecimal number translation (MCDX and MCXD)
Hexadecimal/ASCII character string translation (MX and MY)
The following sections describe how to use each of these conversion codes:
See Also
Using INFO/ACCESS Correlatives and Conversions
Introduction to Correlatives and Conversions