z/OS Block Mode Screen Design › External Data Representation › Character Sets › Fixed Length Character Strings

Fixed Length Character Strings

Fixed length strings have an invariant length, regardless of the length of the significant portion of the data.

When a fixed-length character string is output, it is edited to contain the appropriate formatting. All editing is performed using the application codepage.

When a fixed-length character string is input, it is translated into the application codepage, if needed. This makes it unnecessary to translate edit patterns, and to perform complex editing functions on mixed codepages because all literals, edit patterns, and permitted values are stored in the generated screen manager program in the application codepage.