Decimal type

You can specify characteristics of the decimal column.

Allow all zeros. Specifies whether to treat a packed decimal column containing all zeros (which is normally illegal) as a valid representation of zero. Select Yes or No.
Character Set. Choose from ASCII or EBCDIC.
Decimal separator. Specify the character that acts as the decimal separator (period by default).
Default. The default value for a column. This is used for data written by a Generate stage. It also supplies the value to substitute for a column that causes an error (whether written or read).
Data Format. Specifies the data representation format of a column. Choose from:
- binary
- text
  For decimals, binary means packed. Text represents a decimal in a string format with a leading space or '-' followed by decimal digits with an embedded decimal point if the scale is not zero. The destination string format is: [+ | -]ddd.[ddd] and any precision and scale arguments are ignored.
Field max width. The maximum number of bytes in a column represented as a string. Enter a number. Enter a number. This is useful where you are storing numbers as text. If you are using a fixed-width character set, you can calculate the length exactly. If you are using variable-length character set, calculate an adequate maximum width for your fields. Applies to fields of all data types except date, time, timestamp, and raw; and record, subrec, or tagged if they contain at least one field of this type.
Field width. The number of bytes in a column represented as a string. Enter a number. This is useful where you are storing numbers as text. If you are using a fixed-width charset, you can calculate the number of bytes exactly. If it's a variable length encoding, base your calculation on the width and frequency of your variable-width characters. Applies to fields of all data types except date, time, timestamp, and raw; and record, subrec, or tagged if they contain at least one field of this type.
Packed. Select an option to specify what the decimal columns contain, choose from:
- Yes to specify that the decimal columns contain data in packed decimal format (the default). This has the following sub-properties:
  Check. Select Yes to verify that data is packed, or No to not verify.
  
  Signed. Select Yes to use the existing sign when writing decimal columns. Select No to write a positive sign (0xf) regardless of the columns' actual sign value.
- No (separate) to specify that they contain unpacked decimal with a separate sign byte. This has the following sub-property:
  Sign Position. Choose leading or trailing as appropriate.
- No (zoned) to specify that they contain an unpacked decimal in either ASCII or EBCDIC text. This has the following sub-property:
  Sign Position. Choose leading or trailing as appropriate.
- No (overpunch) to specify that the field has a leading or end byte that contains a character which specifies both the numeric value of that byte and whether the number as a whole is negatively or positively signed. This has the following sub-property:
  Sign Position. Choose leading or trailing as appropriate.
Precision. Specifies the precision where a decimal column is represented in text format. Enter a number. When a decimal is written to a string representation, InfoSphere® DataStage® uses the precision and scale defined for the source decimal field to determine the length of the destination string. The precision and scale properties override this default. When they are defined, InfoSphere DataStage truncates or pads the source decimal to fit the size of the destination string. If you have also specified the field width property, InfoSphere DataStage truncates or pads the source decimal to fit the size specified by field width.
Rounding. Specifies how to round the source field to fit into the destination decimal when reading a source field to a decimal. Choose from:
- up (ceiling). Truncate source column towards positive infinity. This mode corresponds to the IEEE 754 Round Up mode. For example, 1.4 becomes 2, -1.6 becomes -1.
- down (floor). Truncate source column towards negative infinity. This mode corresponds to the IEEE 754 Round Down mode. For example, 1.6 becomes 1, -1.4 becomes -2.
- nearest value. Round the source column towards the nearest representable value. This mode corresponds to the COBOL ROUNDED mode. For example, 1.4 becomes 1, 1.5 becomes 2, -1.4 becomes -1, -1.5 becomes -2.
- truncate towards zero. This is the default. Discard fractional digits to the right of the right-most fractional digit supported by the destination, regardless of sign. For example, if the destination is an integer, all fractional digits are truncated. If the destination is another decimal with a smaller scale, truncate to the scale size of the destination decimal. This mode corresponds to the COBOL INTEGER-PART function. Using this method 1.6 becomes 1, -1.6 becomes -1.
Scale. Specifies how to round a source decimal when its precision and scale are greater than those of the destination. By default, when the InfoSphere DataStage writes a source decimal to a string representation, it uses the precision and scale defined for the source decimal field to determine the length of the destination string. You can override the default by means of the precision and scale properties. When you do, InfoSphere DataStage truncates or pads the source decimal to fit the size of the destination string. If you have also specified the field width property, InfoSphere DataStage truncates or pads the source decimal to fit the size specified by field width. Specifies how to round a source decimal when its precision and scale are greater than those of the destination.