Convert RPG Datefield %DATE into a signed numeric

To convert a RPG DATEFIELD to this numeric 8,0 field with no ‘/’ or ‘-‘ do this:

D  USADate 8s 0
USADate = %dec(%char(DateField:*iso0):8:0);

Or another even neater function is this:

USADate = %uns(%char(DateField:*USA0));

I prefer this %UNS built in function, since it does not require me to specify length and decimal position parameters.

What is %UNS?

%UNSH (Convert to Unsigned Format with Half Adjust)

%UNSH(numeric expression)

%UNSH is like %UNS except that if the numeric expression is a decimal or a float value, half adjust is applied to the value of the numeric expression when converting to unsigned type. No message is issued if half adjust cannot be performed.

*..1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7...+.... D*Name++++++++++ETDsFrom+++To/L+++IDc.Keywords+++++++++++++++++++++++++
D p7 s 7p 3 inz (8236.567)
D s9 s 9s 5 inz (23.73442)
D f8 s 8f inz (173.789)
D result1  s  15p 5
D result2  s  15p 5
D result3  s  15p 5
D array s 1a dim (200)
D a s 1a

result1 = %uns (p7) + 0.1234; // "result1" is now 8236.12340
result2 = %uns (s9); // "result2" is now 23.00000
result3 = %unsh (f8); // "result3" is now 174.00000
// %UNS and %UNSH can be used as array indexes
a = array (%unsh (f8));

Groovy