Type conversions

The XML File Connection supports the following data types in the DID:

ITP data type

Use

Remark

C_CHAR(n+1)

Used for fields that contain characters that can be represented in the single-byte windows 1252 code page (WinLatin1).

Trailing white space will be stripped and the remaining text will be converted to the Windows 1252 code page (WinLatin1)

W_CHAR(n*2+2)

Used for fields that contain characters that are defined in Unicode.

Trailing white space will be stripped and the remaining text will be converted to Unicode.

The LENGTH of a W_CHAR field specifies the maximum length of the field in bytes, including the terminating double-byte NULL character inserted by ITP as terminator. The DID parser will reject W_CHAR fields that specify an uneven number of bytes.

DOUBLE

Used for fields containing a textual representation of numerical data. By default, a comma is interpreted as a thousands separator and a dot is interpreted as a decimal point (the English number notation). You can alter the behavior through settings in the dm.ini

An empty field will be returned as zero.

Leading and trailing white space will be stripped, and the remaining text is interpreted as a representation of a floating-point number.

No length specification.

In the above table n stands for number of characters.

Remarks

An error will be reported at runtime if a text field in the XML file exceeds the length specification of the field in the DID.

The XML File Connection calculates the field length after the spaces have been stripped, obeying the alignment of the field.