>>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.

The "trailing sign overpunch" format? It's been decades since I last heard of that.