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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on Dec 31, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

Add TRUNCNBR(*EXPR) to the RPG IV CTL-OPT keyword to trunction results in assignments

When using legacy MOVE opcodes to copy one numeric variable to another, if Factor 2 contains a longer variable than the result and Factor 2's value actual fits into the Result field's variable, it does the assignment as expected. If Factor 2 contains a longer value than will fit into the target Result Field, that value is copied right-justified, ignores decimal positions and does high-order truncation. 

This request is to add an option to the TRUNCNBR keyword of *EXPR or similar that will  cause the EVAL operation when doing an assignment to a decimal variable, to do high-order truncation (overflow drop) of the result when applicable. That way in the context of converting a legacy MOVE A B to an EVAL, we can avoid the runtime error that occurs when an overflow happens and purposely truncate the result. I would settle for just an EVAL(T) operation extender if TRUNCNBR(*EXPR) is too much to consider.

thank you!

Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Jan 29, 2026
    Thank you for taking the time to submit your Idea. However, This Idea does not align with the strategy for future investment in RPG, so it is being closed.

    The reason that IBM decided not to support TRUNCNBR(*YES) for expressions was that even though there were a few useful reasons for truncating the numeric result, numeric truncation was often the result of a coding error. Since it is easy enough to get the truncated result using %REM, IBM thought that it was more important to reduce the possibility of unintentionally truncating important values.

    Even in cases where a particular MOVE or Z-ADD operation depends on numeric truncation, it would not be good to allow numeric truncation for all statements.

    While adding a "truncate" extender for an individual EVAL operation is a better idea, in most cases, the %REM built-in function can already accomplish the required result.

    - IBM Power Systems Development
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