Schema Options for COBOL Copybooks

The following table describes the schema options for COBOL copybook data sources:

Option Description

Redefines

Specify how the data source represents COBOL copybook redefines clauses. Select either All (the default) or First as follows:

■  Select All to represent all data redefinitions (including nested redefines). If this option is selected and the system encounters a REDEFINES clause, it removes it and keeps both representations of the data in the copybook. The data file will be populated to match the copybook.

Note: You cannot selectively pick REDEFINES clauses to describe data areas. If this is the case, modify your copybook prior to creating the data source.

■  Select First to ignore all redefines and retain only the first representation of the data in the copybook.

Data Alignment

Specify whether the 1-byte (the default) or 2-byte method is used to store the data. The data alignment method specifies how data is stored and depends

on the compiler that generates the application that created the data.

In general, IBM mainframe (MVS) data is stored using the two-byte method and ICL/PC (Microfocus compiler) data is stored using the one-byte method.

IBM MVS half word alignments:

pic digits 0123456789012345678

byte length 0222244444888888888

Intel, ICL, single byte alignments:

pic digits 0123456789012345678

byte length 0112233444555667788

There are several ways to determine the method is use:

■  Consult the original COBOL compiler documentation used to create the application where the data originated.

■  Contact someone who knows how the original data was created and by which system (generally, systems programmers will know this).

■  Assume IBM mainframe data is two-byte aligned, and everything else is one-byte aligned.

Review the data in the Data Preview to see which setting works best for the file. If you select the incorrect setting, often the record contents after the COMP field will be misaligned.

Byte Order

Specify the order of bytes in binary word (16 bit) values). Either Big-Endian (the default) or Little-Endian.

■  Mainframe systems (EBCDIC) tend to be Big Endian, which means that the first byte (8 bits) of a word is the high byte, and the second byte is the low byte.

■  Intel-based platforms such as PCs are Little-Endian, which results in the bytes being swapped.

■  UNIX platforms could be either, but generally Intel-based platforms are Little-Endian and all others are Big-Endian. If you are loading data from a platform that is not Big-Endian (such as binary PC data) then you must select Little-Endian for the data to be interpreted correctly.

Record Termination

Specify how end of lines are represented in the data source.

Typically, COBOL data files are fixed-length and have no record delimiter. However, if COBOL data is exported from the original application and transferred into other file systems (especially UNIX), they could contain record delimiters added by the export or transfer process.

If the file originated from

■  Windows—select CR/LF (the default)

■  UNIX—select LF.

■  IBM mainframe—select None.

Note: The Data Preview will attempt to display end of line characters. These characters will differ depending on what font is selected.

Character Encoding

Specify the character encoding for the data. UTF-8 is the default.

Note: EBCDIC data is translated into a correct ASCII representation on load. Generally, UNIX COBOL files will be ASCII and IBM mainframe data will be EBCDIC.

National Character Encoding

Specify this when your COBOL copybooks define national data items holding Unicode strings or the source data compiler options are set to NSYMBOL(NATIONAL) or CODEPAGE.

Treat unsigned comp-3 fields as comp-6

Select this option only if your COBOL compiler supports comp--3 without an embedded sign.

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