NAME

SYNOPSIS

  use Convert::IBM390 qw(...those desired... or :all);

  set_codepage('CP00037');  # equivalent to "use Convert::IBM390::CP00037;"

  $eb  = asc2eb($string);
  $asc = eb2asc($string);
  $asc = eb2ascp($string);

  $ebrecord = packeb($template, LIST...);
  @fields = unpackeb($template, $ebcdic_record);
  @lines = hexdump($string [,startaddr [,charset]]);

DESCRIPTION

By the way, this module is called "IBM390" because it will deal with data from any mainframe operating system. Nothing about it is specific to z/OS, or z/VM, z/VSE, i5/OS, z/TPF....

When transmitting EBCDIC data to your Perl environment via FTP, be sure to use the "binary" option. This will leave the data unconverted so that the module recognizes it. By default, FTP will translate the data to ASCII; this will convert the character fields correctly but garble other formats, such as packed-decimal and binary.

FUNCTIONS

asc2eb STRING

Converts a character string from ASCII to EBCDIC. The table translates ISO8859-1 to IBM-1047. For more information, see the C/C++ Programming Guide under "REFERENCES".

eb2asc STRING

Converts a character string from EBCDIC to ASCII. EBCDIC character strings ordinarily come from files transferred from mainframes via the binary option of FTP. The table translates IBM-1047 to ISO8859-1 (see above).

eb2ascp STRING

Like eb2asc, but the output will contain only printable ASCII characters.

packeb TEMPLATE LIST

This function is much like Perl's built-in "pack". It takes a list of values and packs it into an EBCDIC record (structure). If called in list context, it will return a list of one element. The TEMPLATE is patterned after Perl's pack template but allows fewer options. The following characters are allowed in the template:

  c  (1)  Character string without translation, padded with nulls
  C  (1)  Character string without translation, padded with native
          spaces
  e  (1)  ASCII string to be translated into EBCDIC, padded with nulls
  E  (1)  ASCII string to be translated into EBCDIC, padded with EBCDIC
          spaces
  h  (1)  A hexadecimal string, high nibble always first
  i  (2)  Signed integer (S/390 fullword)
  p  (1)  Packed-decimal field (default length = 8)
  P  (1)  Packed-decimal field with F signs for positive numbers
          (sometimes called "unsigned") (default length = 8)
  s  (2)  Signed short integer (S/390 halfword)
  S  (2)  Unsigned short integer (2 bytes)
  x  (2)  A null byte
  z  (1)  Zoned-decimal field (default length = 8)
  Z  (1)  Unsigned zoned-decimal field (default length = 8)
  @       Null-fill to absolute offset

 (1) May be followed by a number giving the length of the output field;
     or, for hexadecimal, the number of nibbles in the input.
 (2) May be followed by a number giving the repeat count.
    

Each character may be followed by a number giving either the length of the field or a repeat count, as shown above. Types 'i', 's', and 'S' will gobble the specified number of items from the list; if '*' is given as the length, all the remaining items will be gobbled. All other types will gobble only one item; you will usually want to give a length for the output field. The following defaults apply:

  Conversion                No length given   '*' given
  Character string [cCeE]   1                 Same length as input
  Hex string [hH]           2                 Same length as input
  Decimal [pz]              8                 8
    

The number must immediately follow the character, but whitespace may appear between field specifiers.

The length for packed (p) or zoned (z) fields may include a number of decimal places, which is added after the byte count and a '.'. For instance, "p3.2" indicates a 3-byte (5-digit) packed field with 2 implied decimal places; if the corresponding list element is 24.68, the result will be x'02468C'. Likewise, "z7.2" indicates a 7-byte (7-digit) zoned field with 2 implied decimal places; if the input is -35.79, the result will be '000357R' in EBCDIC. The number of implied decimals may be greater than the number of digits, but such a specification will usually cause you to lose part of your value; e.g., packing .589 with "p3.6" would yield x'89000c'. If the input is not a valid Perl number, the results are unpredictable (since they depend on internal Perl code), but most likely the output field will contain zero.

'p' will produce packed fields with the preferred sign characters: C for positive, D for negative. 'P' will produce F for positive (sometimes called "unsigned") and D for negative.

Signed zoned output (z) will always have an overpunch in the last byte for the sign. In other words, the top nibble will be 'C' for positive or 'D' for negative; e.g., x'C1' (EBCDIC 'A') for +1 or x'D3' (EBCDIC 'L') for -3. In unsigned zoned output (Z), positive values will have no overpunch; i.e., the top nibble will always be 'F'. Thus, +1 will be the character '1' (x'F1'). Negative values will have a 'D' overpunch.

The ASCII-to-EBCDIC translation used by [Ee] is the same as in asc2eb().

Either 'h' or 'H' may be used to request hexadecimal conversion. This conversion is exactly the same as in the Perl pack function, except that the high nibble must always come first in the input.

The maximum length of a packed field is 16 bytes; of a zoned field, 32 bytes. All other fields may have a maximum specifier (length or repeat count) of 32767. The maximum length of the output structure is 36KB. These maxima are enforced.

See "unpackeb" for the correspondence between template characters and Cobol pictures.

unpackeb TEMPLATE RECORD

This function is much like Perl's built-in "unpack". It takes an EBCDIC record (structure) and unpacks it into a list of values. If called in scalar context, it will return only the first unpacked value. The TEMPLATE is patterned after Perl's unpack template but allows fewer options. The following characters are allowed in the template:

  c or C (1)   Character string without translation
  e      (1)   EBCDIC string to be translated into ASCII; preserve
               trailing nulls and spaces
  E      (1)   EBCDIC string to be translated into ASCII; strip
               trailing nulls and spaces
  i      (2)   Signed integer (S/390 fullword)
  I      (2)   Unsigned integer (4 bytes)
  p      (1)   Packed-decimal field
  s      (2)   Signed short integer (S/390 halfword)
  S      (2)   Unsigned short integer (2 bytes)
  v      (2)   EBCDIC varchar string
  V      (1)   EBCDIC varchar string in fixed-length field
  x      (1)   Ignore these bytes
  z or Z (1)   Zoned-decimal field (signed or unsigned)
  @            Move to an absolute position in the input record

 (1) May be followed by a number giving the length of the field.
 (2) May be followed by a number giving the repeat count.
    

Each character may be followed by a number giving either the length of the field or a repeat count, as shown above, or by '*', which means to use however many items are left in the string. The number must immediately follow the character, but whitespace may appear between field specifiers.

The length for packed (p) or zoned (z) fields may include a number of decimal places, which is added after the byte count and a '.'. For instance, "p3.2" indicates a 3-byte (5-digit) packed field with 2 implied decimal places; if this field contains x'02468C', the result will be 24.68. Likewise, "z7.2" indicates a 7-byte (7-digit) zoned field with 2 implied decimal places; if this field contains '000357R' (in EBCDIC), the result will be -35.79. The number of implied decimals may be greater than the number of digits; e.g., unpacking the packed field above with "p3.6" would yield 0.002468. Zoned input fields may, but need not, have an overpunch sign in the last byte. If the field is not a valid packed or zoned field, the resulting element of the list will be undefined.

Varchar (v) fields are assumed to consist of a signed halfword (16-bit) integer followed by EBCDIC characters. If the number appearing in the initial halfword is N, the following N bytes are translated from EBCDIC to ASCII and returned as one string. This format is used, for instance, by DB2/MVS. A repeat count may be specified; e.g., "v2" does not mean a length of 2 bytes, but that there are two such fields in succession. If the length is found to be less than 0, the resulting element of the list will be undefined.

Varchar (V) fields are similar except that the variable data is stored in a fixed-length field. The fixed-length field is large enough to contain a halfword and the maximum possible varchar value; for instance, a varchar(200) field will occupy 202 bytes. The length given in your format string should be the maximum length of the field exclusive of the halfword; for instance, 'V200' for the field just described. The halfword length in the data determines the length of the resulting string. For instance, a 3-character string in a 200-byte field will come out as 3 characters, not 200.

The EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation used by [EeVv] is the same as in eb2asc().

The maximum length of a packed field is 16 bytes; of a zoned field, 32 bytes. All other fields may have a maximum specifier (length or repeat count) of 32767. These maxima are enforced.

In most cases, you should use 'i' rather than 'I' when unpacking fullword integers. Unsigned long integers are not handled cleanly by all systems.

A simplified correspondence between template characters and Cobol pictures follows.

  c,e,E  PIC X
  i      S9(9) COMP, COMP-4, BINARY, or COMP-5
  I      9(9) COMP, COMP-4, BINARY, or COMP-5
  p      S9(d)V9(s) COMP-3; number of bytes is typically (d+s+1)/2
  s      S9(4) COMP, COMP-4, BINARY, or COMP-5
  z      S9(x) DISPLAY; number of bytes = number of digits
  Z      9(x) DISPLAY; number of bytes = number of digits
    

hexdump STRING [STARTADDR [CHARSET]]

Generates a hexadecimal dump of STRING. The dump is similar to a SYSABEND dump in z/OS: each line contains an address, 32 bytes of data in hexadecimal, and the same data in printable form. This function returns a list of lines, each of which is terminated with a newline. This allows them to be printed immediately; for instance, you can say "print hexdump($crud);".

The second and third arguments are optional. The second specifies a starting address for the dump (default = 0); the third specifies the character set to use for the printable data at the end of each line ("ascii" or "ebcdic", in upper or lower case; default = ascii).

set_codepage CODEPAGE

Sets the ASCII/EBCDIC translation to CODEPAGE. This is equivalent to

  use Convert::IBM390::CODEPAGE;
    

but is more convenient if you're switching between multiple codepages, or if the codepage is determined at runtime.

set_translation A2E [E2A [E2AP]]

Sets the ASCII/EBCDIC translation tables. Each table must be either 256 characters, or 512 hexadecimal digits with optional whitespace.

If the mapping is 1-to-1 (each ASCII byte maps to a unique EBCDIC byte), you can specify just one of A2E and E2A (either one, passing "undef" for the other), and set_translation will automatically compute the reverse mapping. If the mapping is not 1-to-1, you must supply both A2E and E2A. (If you're only converting in one direction, you could pass a bogus table like "' ' x 256").

E2AP is normally generated automatically from E2A, but you can supply it if you want a different set of "printable" characters.

version

Returns a string identifying the version of this module. This function is not exported; it must be called as "Convert::IBM390::version".

CODEPAGES

  CP00037: USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Brazil, Portugal
  CP00273: Austria, Germany
  CP00275: Brazil
  CP00277: Denmark, Norway
  CP00278: Finland, Sweden
  CP00280: Italy
  CP00281: Japanese English
  CP00282: Portuguese
  CP00284: Spanish
  CP00285: United Kingdom
  CP00297: France
  CP00500: Latin-1
  CP00871: Iceland
  CP01047: Latin-1 
  CP01140: USA/Canada (Euro)
  CP01141: Germany (Euro)
  CP01142: Denmark/Norway (Euro)
  CP01143: Finland/Sweden (Euro)
  CP01144: Italy (Euro)
  CP01145: Latin America/Spain (Euro)
  CP01146: United Kingdom (Euro)
  CP01147: France (Euro)
  CP01148: International (Euro)
  CP01149: Icelandic (Euro)

SMF TIMESTAMPS

A COBOL EXAMPLE

 01  ACPDB-RECORD.
     03  ACPDB-FIRST-DATE-TRANS.
         05  ACPDB-FD-TRANS-CN   PIC XX.
         05  ACPDB-FD-TRANS-YR   PIC XX.
         05  ACPDB-FD-TRANS-MO   PIC XX.
         05  ACPDB-FD-TRANS-DA   PIC XX.
     03  ACPDB-LAST-DATE-TRANS.
         05  ACPDB-LD-TRANS-CN   PIC XX.
         05  ACPDB-LD-TRANS-YR   PIC XX.
         05  ACPDB-LD-TRANS-MO   PIC XX.
         05  ACPDB-LD-TRANS-DA   PIC XX.
     03  ACPDB-TOTAL-ITEMS       PIC S9(9)       COMP.
     03  ACPDB-TOTAL-NO-TRANS    PIC S9(5)       COMP-3.
     03  ACPDB-TOTAL-DOLLARS-1   PIC S9(7)V99    COMP-3.
     03  ACPDB-PREV-YR-DOLLARS   PIC S9(7)V99    COMP-3.
     03  ACPDB-RETURNED-ITEMS    PIC S9(4)       COMP.
     03  ACPDB-DOLL-CD-PREV-BASE PIC XX.

You would unpack the record like this:

  @fields = unpackeb('e8 e8 i p3.0 p5.2 p5.2 s e2', $inrecord)

REFERENCES

IBM ESA/390 Principles of Operation, SA22-7201.

z/OS XL C/C++ Programming Guide, SC14-7315, chap. 64 (code set converters).

z/OS MVS System Management Facilities (SMF), SA22-7630, s.v. "Standard SMF Record Header".

AUTHOR