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Double-Byte Character Set (DBCS) Strings › Coding DBCS Strings

Coding DBCS Strings

To code a DBCS string

  1. Type the site-specific quote character.
  2. Switch the terminal to DBCS.

    The computer hardware automatically inserts a shiftout character ([SO]).

  3. Type the double-byte character string.
  4. Switch the terminal to EBCDIC.

    The computer hardware automatically inserts a shiftin character ([SI]).

  5. Type the site-specific quote character.

Depending on your terminal hardware, the shift code occupies from one to three bytes. The shift codes are invisible. However, on an IBM-5550 machine, a shift code occupies a screen position; on Fujitsu hardware, it does not.

Examples

This first example uses a double-byte character string in the COMMENTS clause of the DESTINATION statement.

add destination name is dest01
    comments is '[so]dbcs-character string[si]' .

This second example uses a double-byte character string in the VALUE clause of a COBOL Record Element. Note that the [si] and [so] sequences, which are located at the very beginning and end of the quoted string, must be coded as 1 byte hexadecimal characters for the z/OS, z/VM and z/VSE platforms. The hex representation is provided for clarity.

__________________________________________________________
           02 FIELD-5             PIC G(5) DISPLAY-1
 44444444444FF4CCCDC6F4444444444444DCC4C4F54CCEDDCE6F444444
 000000000000206953405000000000000079307D5D0492731801000000
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                                   VALUE G' DBCS-STR ' .
 44444444444444444444444444444444444ECDEC4C70CCCE6EED074444
 000000000000000000000000000000000005134507DE42320239FD0B00
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