# Compressing Zeros **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum\ **Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Natural, Natural-on-Mainframes\ **Created:** [July 2, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923 "2007-07-02T15:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sriramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sriramp](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/sriramp)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/1 "2007-07-02T15:15:17Z")
Hi, Can we not compress a numeric value zero into an alphanumeric variable?? Suppose, i want to compress some 3 zeros one by one in a for loop. I tried this with COMPRESS ‘0’ TO #VAR1 LEAVING NO SPACE, but it gives the result of having only one zero. Can anyone help me out of this? ---
**Author:** ![Klaus\_Sponagel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Klaus\_Sponagel](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Klaus_Sponagel)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 3:34pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/2 "2007-07-02T15:34:47Z")
COMPRESS FULL does the trick. ```auto 0010 DEFINE DATA LOCAL 0020 1 N(N4) 0021 1 A(A40) 0030 END-DEFINE 0040 COMPRESS FULL 'yy' N 'zz' INTO A 0050 WRITE A 0060 END ``` ---
**Author:** ![sriramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sriramp](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/sriramp)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/3 "2007-07-02T16:14:40Z")
Thanks for your reply, But i want to have only the character ‘0’ (zero) and nothin else ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/4 "2007-07-02T16:51:58Z")
> [@isam777](#): > > I tried this with > > COMPRESS ‘0’ TO #VAR1 LEAVING NO SPACE, > but it gives the result of having only one zero. If you insist in doing it in a FOR loop this needs to be ```auto COMPRESS '0' #VAR1 INTO #VAR1 LEAVING NO SPACE ``` ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Robinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/steve_robinson/32/107_2.png) [@Steve\_Robinson](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Steve_Robinson)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/5 "2007-07-02T17:51:36Z")
Is there any particular reason you do not simply COMPRESS ‘000’ #VAR1 INTO #VAR1 LEAVING NO SPACE ??? steve ---
**Author:** ![sriramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sriramp](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/sriramp)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2007, 11:05am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/6 "2007-07-03T11:05:17Z")
Yea Steve, I want to prefix some zeros before a number based on some count value. So, the number of zeros before the number is dynamic. This is the reason, i wanted to have zeros before a number. And, Thanks for the solution. It worked!!! ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Spichtinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Helmut\_Spichtinger](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Helmut_Spichtinger)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/7 "2007-07-03T12:30:57Z")
Instead of using the COMPRESS statement, you might use the RESET statement by redefining your variable as a numeric array: ```auto DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 #COUNT-VALUE (I4) 1 #VAR1 (A50) 1 REDEFINE #VAR1 2 #VAR1-N (N1/50) END-DEFINE #COUNT-VALUE := 3 RESET #VAR1-N(1:#COUNT-VALUE) WRITE #VAR1 END ``` ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Robinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/steve_robinson/32/107_2.png) [@Steve\_Robinson](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Steve_Robinson)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/8 "2007-07-03T16:37:04Z")
If the number of zeroes is variable (say #COUNT), try this code: DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 #STRING (A50) INIT \<‘QWERT’\> 1 #COUNT (P3) INIT \<4\> 1 #ZEROES (A10) INIT FULL LENGTH \<‘0’\> END-DEFINE \* COMPRESS SUBSTRING (#ZEROES,1,#COUNT) #STRING INTO #STRING LEAVING NO SPACE WRITE ‘1234567890’ / #STRING END steve ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/compressing-zeros/74923/9 "2021-04-02T14:48:30Z")