On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:16:26 +0000, Ted MacNEIL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>... >The simple answer is that the designed the interpreter that way. >Whenever possible numeric strings are interpreted as numbers first, >unless you perform unnatural acts of coding, regardless of whether >you quote it or not. >... While I've known this for years, I've never given it much thought. I've been coding REXX since around 1988 but never (knowingly) ran into this ... probably because I've never needed to use scientific notiation in REXX and never even knew it was supported. I now wonder how many comparisons are waiting to fail on me. I can just picture very different and unexpected results from the two invocations x= SOMEEXEC(00E0 00E8) y= SOMEEXEC(00F0 00F8) where REXX sees 2 equal numbers in the first case and 2 different strings in the second case. Before reading this thread I would have been flumixed. Another unexpected gem from IBM-Main. Thanks folks! Pat O'Keefe ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
