Is This a Bug?

[John Hemmer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Stockler" <bob at trebor.iglou.com>
To: "filePro mailing list" <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: Is This a Bug?


> On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 02:58:24PM -0400, John Hemmer wrote:
> |        The following code:
> | 
> |        Then:  A(3,.0)="25"
> |        Then:  B(3,.0)=MAX( "1", A-"8" )
> |        Then:  C(3,.0)=A-"8"
> |        Then:  D(3,.0)=MAX("1",C)
> |        Then:  SHOW "A="{A<"B="{B<"C="{C<"D="{D
> | 
> |         Gives the following result:
> | 
> |                                 A=25 B=1 C=17 D=17
> | 
> |        If I enclose A-"8" in parenthesis such as:
> | 
> |        Then:  B(3,.0)=MAX( "1", (A-"8") )
> | 
> |         I get the same result.  I would think that I should get
> |         a value of 17 for B.
> | 
> |         I am compiling with rcabe version 5.0.13.R4
> | 
> |         I get the same result using both rclerk and dclerk.
> 
> Well, it's consistent anyway.
> 
> I don't think filePro is going to do arithmetic/math for you
> within arguments to the MAX() function.
> 
> Bug or design decision, I don't know.
> 
> For now, anyway, it seems you'll have to do your arithmetic/math
> to a variable befor you use the MAX() function,
> 
> Bob
> 

Bob,

Maybe I should have included the example where it does the math
correctly within  MIN().  The following code:

       Then:  A(3,.0)="25"
       Then:  B(3,.0)=MIN( "79", A+"8" )
        Then:  C(3,.0)=A+"8"
        Then:  D(3,.0)=MIN("79",C)
        Then:  SHOW "A="{A<"B="{B<"C="{C<"D="{D
 
        Gives the following result:
 
                            A=25 B=33 C=33 D=33

         It demonstrate that it doing math within () works for MIN.
         
         Perhaps filePro has a bug parsing the hypen treating it like an 
         argument-separator instead of a minus-sign, but I would have 
         thought nesting the math in parenthesis such as with ......

            B(3,.0)=MAX( "1", (A-"8") ),   would correct that.

John

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