AsciiToEbcdic (String function)

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.

AsciiToEbcdic syntax

  %ebcdic = string:AsciiToEbcdic([CharacterEncode=bool])                                    

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 Intrinsic 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 ...