error 163

are you sure that the lookup on PAEMPLOYEE was successful ?
On a NOTFOUND condition, the fields are usually filled with XXXXXX. If it happens to be a numeric field....

Maybe before the IF statement, you need to check for the NOTFOUND condition.

ragu, I ended up putting display statements and looks like my error field is not the bargain unit so far. My program dies in the following code: 
5056             IF (TEM-AVAIL-HRS-BAL + LPC-TEMP-AWARD) <=
 15057                (LPC-PRO-ANNUAL-RATIO * 320)
 15058                 MOVE LPC-TEMP-AWARD TO LPC-AWARD
 15059             ELSE
 15060                 COMPUTE LPC-AWARD =
Animate-LP140.int---------------------------Level=15-Speed=5-Ins-Caps-Num-Scroll
F1=help F2=view F3=align F4=exchange F5=where F6=look-up  F9/F10=word- Escape
Step Go Zoom Perform Reset Break Env Query Find Locate Text Do View-threads More
163     Illegal character in numeric field - ...rade/law/upgradepl/obj/LP140.in

One or more of the 3 fields (TEM-AVAIL-HRS-BAL, LPC-TEMP-AWARSD, LPC-PRO-ANNUAL-RATIO) has a non numeric value.
Try to backtrack and find out where the lookup is done on the corrsponding table and if the lookuo fails, why.

Here what Ic when animating LP140. The problem is that my routine is looking at the TEM-AVAIL-HRS-BAL field that's being passed by LP140. I am not performing a DB call.
What does this mean and how do I check if the value in the field is good before I proceed.

15081                        (LPC-ACR-HOURS *.076923125)
 15082                 DISPLAY "YOS IS > 8 "   LPC-TEMP-AWARD
 15083                IF (TE+TEM-AVAIL-HRS-BAL--+
 15084                    DI|^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^    |
 15085                ELSE  +------------------------+
 15086                    DISPLAY "BAD DATA: "
 15087                    MOVE ZEROES TO TEM-AVAIL-HRS-BAL
 15088                END-IF

If you are looking for training on 4GL coding and/or help with troubleshooting, please drop me a line:
Raghavan@Inform-alServices.com

Thanks.