AsciiToEbcdic (String function)

Convert ASCII string to EBCDIC (String class)

This intrinsic function converts an ASCII (ISO-8859-1) string to EBCDIC using the current Unicode tables. Optionally, untranslatable characters are represented with character references.

The AsciiToEbcdic function is available as of version 7.3 of the Sirius Mods.

Syntax

%outString = string:AsciiToEbcdic[( [CharacterEncode= boolean])] Throws CharacterTranslationException

Syntax terms

%ebcdic	A string variable to receive the method object string translated to EBCDIC.
string	A string that is presumed to consist of ASCII characters.
CharacterEncode=bool	The optional (name required) CharacterEncode argument is a Boolean: *If its value is 'False', the default, an exception is thrown if the input contains any ASCII character not translatable to EBCDIC. *If its value is 'True', any ASCII character not translatable to EBCDIC is replaced with the XML style hexadecimal character reference of the character, and the ampersand character is replaced with '&amp.amp;'. For instance, the six characters '' replace the ASCII Device Control String character (X'90'). A similar example is shown below.

Exceptions

This intrinsic function can throw the following exception:

CharacterTranslationException

If the method encounters a translation problem, properties of the exception object may indicate the location and type of problem.

Usage notes

• More information is available about the Unicode tables.
• The inverse of the AsciiToEbcdic method is EbcdicToAscii.

Examples

The following fragment shows calls of AsciiToEbcdic against strings with and without non-translatable characters.

   %a String Len 20
   %a = '31':X
   Print %a:AsciiToEbcdic

   %a = '318132':X
   Print %a:AsciiToEbcdic(CharacterEncode=True)
   Print %a:AsciiToEbcdic

The result is:

   1
   12
   CANCELLING REQUEST: MSIR.0751: Class STRING, function ASCIITOEBCDIC: CHARACTER TRANSLATIONEXCEPTION
     exception: ASCII character X'81' without valid translation to EBCDIC at byte position 1 ...

See also

List of intrinsic String methods