Converting unsigned number

[KeyserSoze]

I have an unsigned number that is stored in an 13-character format (for COBOL afficionadoes, it's stored as S99999999999V99) in ASCII. I would like a way to take this number and convert it to a readable format with the minus sign placed to the right.

Is this possible without building specialized functions to do it?

Thanks!

 

[jbenson001]

I'm not 100% sure what you are asking for, or what datatype the value you want to convert is. If you are passing in a string, you can try something like this:

Dim d As Double = CDbl("-123456.78")
Dim s As String = d.ToString("$#,##0.00+;$#,##0.00-;0")

You can change the format expression as needed. The expression above will take into account positive, neagative and 0 values.

Jim

 

[MacLeod72]

I believe this might be what you are looking for:

Dim inputStr as String = "-0000000123456"
Dim sign as String = inputStr.Substring(0, 1)
Dim outputStr as String

outputStr = String.Format("{0}.{1}{2}", _
                  inputStr.Substring(1, 11).TrimStart(New Char() = {"0"c}), _
                  inputStr.Substring(11, 2), _
                  IIF(sign = "-", sign, "") _
            ) ' Should return "1234.56-"

I haven't had a chance to test this, however.

Hope it helps!

--Rob

 

[KeyserSoze]

Thanks to all that replied.

The problem, I just realized, is a little more complicated. The number was originally on a mainframe in EBCDIC format and translated to ASCII. From the ASCII format, I have to translate the data into the proper value and detect whether or not the number is negative, thus applying a negative sign to it.

Thanks!