Conversion Rules - Character Code

Data Converter has built-in support for conversions between ASCII and EBCDIC, and between ASCII and Unicode.

Adjustments to the standard conversions can be made using user-defined conversion tables.

When converting character fields (for example fields with attribute X), Data Converter checks that the characters are valid.  These checks are performed regardless of whether the input and output code systems are different.  Data Converter reports conversion errors when non-character codes are found in input character fields.  ASCII tab characters (0x09), and EBCDIC values 0x28 and 0x29, do not cause errors.

You can switch off the code checking for a field by specifying "Y" in the "No Conversion" extension information in the Layout Definition utility.

The following table shows the input and output file format combinations supported by Data Converter.

Input/Output Binary file COBOL file CSV file XML file Text file
Binary file Y Y Y Y N
COBOL file Y Y Y Y N
CSV file Y Y N Y N
XML file Y Y Y Y N
Text file N N N N Y
Y : usable
N : disabled

The following table shows the code systems that are supported for each file format in Data Converter.

format/code ASCII EBCDIC UCS2 UTF8
Binary file Y Y Y Y
COBOL file Y Y Z Z
CSV file Y N Y Y
XML file Y N N Y
Text file Y Y Y Y
Y : usable
Z : stores by X item (UTF8 form) and N item (UCS2 form).
N : disabled