Informats under z/OS

PDw.d Informat: z/OS

Reads IBM packed decimal data.

Numeric
Width range:	1-16 bytes
Default width:	1
Decimal range:	0-31
z/OS specifics:	IBM packed decimal format
See:	PDw.d Informat in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary

Details
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Details

The w value specifies the number of bytes, not the number of digits. If the informat specification includes a d value, the number is divided by 10^d.

In packed decimal format, each byte except for the last byte represents two decimal digits. (The last byte represents one digit and the sign.) An IBM packed decimal number consists of a sign and up to 31 digits, thus giving a range from -10³¹ + 1 to 10³¹ - 1. The sign is written in the rightmost nibble. (A nibble is 4 bits or half a byte.) A hexadecimal C indicates a plus sign, and a hexadecimal D indicates a minus sign. The rest of the nibbles to the left of the sign nibble represent decimal digits. The hexadecimal values of these digit nibbles correspond to decimal values; therefore, only values between '0'x and '9'x can be used in the digit positions.

Here are several examples of how data is read using the PDw.d informat:

Data Line (Hexadecimal)		Informat	Value	Notes
01234D		pd3.	-1234
0123400C		pd4.2	1234	the d value of 2 causes the number to be divided by 10²

Note: In these examples, Data Line (Hexadecimal) represents the bit pattern stored, which is the value you see if you view it in a text editor that displays values in hexadecimal representation. Value is the number that is used by SAS after the data pattern has been read using the corresponding informat. [cautionend]

The PDw.d format writes missing numerical data as -0. When the PDw.d informat reads -0, it stores it 0.