Numeric or character expression

When the first parameter is a numeric or character expression, the result has precision digits and decimal places decimal positions. The precision and decimal places must be numeric literals, named constants that represent numeric literals, or built-in functions with a numeric value known at compile-time.

Note:

%LEN and %DECPOS cannot be used directly for the second and third parameters of %DEC or %DECH, even if the values of %LEN and %DECPOS are constant. See Figure 227 for an example using the length and decimal positions of a variable to control %DEC and %DECH.

Parameters precision and decimal places may be omitted if the type of expression is neither float nor character. If these parameters are omitted, the precision and decimal places are taken from the attributes of the numeric expression.

If the parameter is a character expression, the following rules apply:

The sign is optional. It can be '+' or '-'. It can precede or follow the numeric data.
The decimal point is optional. It can be either a period or a comma.
Blanks are allowed anywhere in the data. For example, ' + 3 ' is a valid parameter.
The second and third parameters are required.
Floating point data, for example '1.2E6', is not allowed.
If invalid numeric data is found, an exception occurs with status code 105.

See %DECHfor examples using %DEC.

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