Type Conversion

To permit work with variables of different data types, Benchmark Description Language offers the following functions for converting data types:

Function	Parameter	Return value	Description
ord	character	ASCII code	Converts a single character to its ASCII value
chr	ASCII code	character	Converts an ASCII value to its corresponding character value
string	integer float boolean	string	Converts the value of an expression to a string
number	string float boolean	integer	Converts the characters of a string or a floating-point value to an integer value. A boolean value is converted to 0 for invalid expressions (false) or 1 for valid (true) expressions.
float	string integer boolean	float	Converts the characters of a string or an integer value to a floating-point value. A boolean value is converted to 0.0 for invalid expressions (false) or 1.0 for valid (true) expressions

Syntax

ConvertFunc = "chr" "(" Expr ")"
            | "ord" "(" Expr ")"
            | "string" "(" Expr ")"
            | "number" "(" Expr ")"
            | "float" "(" Expr ")"
            | "boolean" "(" Expr ")".

If number(string) cannot convert the string to a number, it returns zero (0).
If string contains a floating-point value, the digits after the decimal point are truncated.
If float(string) cannot convert the string to a floating-point number, it returns zero (0.0).

Alphanumeric characters after digits are ignored.

Example

dcltrans
  transaction TMain
  var
    I : number;
    f : float;
    s : string(14) init "ProductName";
    s1 : string(14);
    b1 : boolean;
  begin
    I := ord('x');          // --> i: 120
    s[1] := chr(I+1);       // --> s[1]: 'y'
    I := ord(s[2]);         // --> i: 114
    I := 123;
    s := string(I*10+1000); // --> s: "2230"
    I := number(s);         // --> i: 2230
    s := "-123.99";
    I := number(s);         // --> i: -123
    s := "123aby";
    I := number(s);         // --> i: 123
    s := "x123.99";
    I := number(s);         // --> i: 0
    s := "A" + string(I);   // --> s: "A0"
    s := "-129.77";
    f := float(s);          // --> f: -129.77
    I := 20500;
    f := float(I);          // --> f: 20500.0
    b1 := boolean("TRUE");  // --> b1: true
    s := string(b1);        // --> s: "TRUE"
    i := number(b1);        // --> i: 1
  end TMain;