>I am trying to import data from a .dat file. I've got the data and am having only one problem.
>There is a compression character evidently on a numeric field i.e. 38.50 is 385}
>
>I guess I need to know what characters represent 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,and 9. Can anyone help me?

Look up "Hollerith" see if that's it. Those characters might be for negatives.