Strange RFC model field behavior

Question

Hi all
I'm working with an RFC that have a table structure Foo_Item that contains the field Postion. This field has ABAP component type BUZEI and data type NUMC.
This is represented in Java as a String. My problem is that it displays as "000" when the value of the field is null. I would like it to display "" (the empty string).
Consider this code (in the component controller):
Foo_Item oldItem = <some instance of Foo_Item>
Foo_Item.setPostion(null);
if (Foo_Item != null) {
    Foo_Item newItem = new Foo_Item();
    // Here, newItem.getPostion() -> null
    WDCopyService.copyCorresponding(oldItem, newItem);
    // Now, newItem.getPostion() -> "000"
    newItem().setPostion(null);
    // Mindblowingly, newItem.getPostion() -> "000" still!
Now, something strange is going on behind the scenes here. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
-martin

Answer 1

Hi Martin,
There is a class behind the scenes that returns a String but internally represents a NUMC.
You will have to copy your value in a normal String and remove the leading zeros (If you do not want any leading zeros that is)
//@@begin javadoc:removeLeadingZeros()
     /** Declared method. */
  //@@end
  public java.lang.String removeLeadingZeros( java.lang.String inString )
    //@@begin removeLeadingZeros()
          String outString = "";
          if (inString != null) {
               int length = inString.length();
               for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
                    char s = inString.charAt(i);
                    if (s == '0') {
                         //do nothing here
                    } else {
                         outString = inString.substring(i);
                         break;
          return outString;
    //@@end
Regards,
Jeschael