Character-String to Arithmetic Conversion

Character-string to arithmetic conversion converts a character string to any arithmetic data type.

If the context that caused the conversion does not give a target base or scale, fixed or decimal is supplied by default. If it does not supply a target precision, the maximum precision allowed by the implementation for the target base and scale is supplied. For the maximum precision allowed by Open PL/I, see your Open PL/I User's Guide.

If the source character-string value is a null string or if it contains all blanks, the value of the result is zero; otherwise, the source string must contain a valid optionally signed constant surrounded by optional blanks. The constant is converted to conform to the data type of the target using the normal rules for arithmetic to arithmetic conversion.

The results in the previous example would be produced by converting a Character(6) source value to a fixed-point integer result value.