cobol to ascii translation

Hi,
I have a cobol data file from a unisys A series mainframe.

2 types of fields :

pic 9 (xx) comp.  <= many fields of this type varying lengths
pic X (15) .  <= only one field

I am having a problem translating the pic X (display field).

I ftp'd file from mainframe as binary.  Each record is 120 bytes.

pic X field starts at byte 25 and the length is 15 bytes.

I am using perl and unpack.

When I did this:

$string = unpack H240, $record
the comp. fields come out fine and the display field is spit out in
hex representation of EBCDIC which I can manually translate using a
lookup table.

ie: f3f4f2f4f1f9f8f7f8c3d4f0f0f0f1  = 342419878CM0001

But I want to automate this.  I thought I was able to use an
ebcdic2ascii function for this and translate the pic X field before
being unpacked, but I am not getting the right answer..

Can someone help pls?  I am a beginner with this translation stuff.

To summarize, how do I translate a display field when file is ftp'd as
binary?

thanks a lot,

In article <1183131010.025069.104020@c77g2000hse.googlegroups.com>, roch77@gmail.com wrote:

>Hi,
>I have a cobol data file from a unisys A series mainframe.
>
>2 types of fields :
>
>pic 9 (xx) comp.  <= many fields of this type varying lengths
>pic X (15) .  <= only one field
>
>I am having a problem translating the pic X (display field).
>
>I ftp'd file from mainframe as binary.  Each record is 120 bytes.
>
>pic X field starts at byte 25 and the length is 15 bytes.
>
>I am using perl and unpack.
>
>When I did this:
>
>$string = unpack H240, $record
>the comp. fields come out fine and the display field is spit out in
>hex representation of EBCDIC which I can manually translate using a
>lookup table.
>
>ie: f3f4f2f4f1f9f8f7f8c3d4f0f0f0f1  = 342419878CM0001
>
>But I want to automate this.  I thought I was able to use an
>ebcdic2ascii function for this and translate the pic X field before
>being unpacked, but I am not getting the right answer..

Some indication of what you *are* getting would be helpful... as well as som
e
indication of how you're going about it -- not to mention what platform you'
re
working on.
>
>Can someone help pls?  I am a beginner with this translation stuff.
>
>To summarize, how do I translate a display field when file is ftp'd as
>binary?

With an ebcdic-to-ascii conversion. Without knowing what you're doing now, a
nd
how it's not working, it's pretty hard to advise you how to fix it.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphag at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

"Doug Miller" <spambait@milmac.com> wrote in message
news:bQ9hi.23097$C96.793@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net...
> In article <1183131010.025069.104020@c77g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
> roch77@gmail.com wrote: 
 

That should work, as long as that function is ONLY operating on the display
fields and not the entire record.  (Unpacking? What's to "unpack?" If file
is FTPed it is not 'packed' it just 'is')

(Third time in three ws for this *exact*  same question here. Search
archives, seems to me there have been at least 6,862 suggestions to solve
your problem)

MCM

In article <AX9hi.9363$c06.6434@newssvr22.news.prodigy.net>,
Michael Mattias <mmattias@talsystems.com> wrote:

[snip]

>(Third time in three ws for this *exact*  same question here. Search
>archives, seems to me there have been at least 6,862 suggestions to solve
>your problem)

Maybe it's something in the water... used to be - back when they taught
such things in schools - that the beginning of a new semester would bring
folks asking The Same Question about getting their homework done; maybe
there's been a recent flood of outsourcing that started with a
magazine-article read by a Corner-Office Idiot which got translated into a
sneering analysis of 'I don't see what's so difficult... all ya gotta do
is...'

DD

roch77@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a cobol data file from a unisys A series mainframe.
[snip]
> I am having a problem translating the pic X (display field).
>
> I ftp'd file from mainframe as binary.  Each record is 120 bytes.

Are you sure you're getting EBCDIC?  I know the 2200 used a 9-bit word,
and straight binary FTP's dropped that 9th bit - you have to use "quote
type l36" (or "quote type l 36", depending on your client) to enable
36-bit words.

> ie: f3f4f2f4f1f9f8f7f8c3d4f0f0f0f1  = 342419878CM0001

Is this what's actually in the file on the mainframe?

--
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~ Business E-mail  ~ daniel @ "Business Website" below            ~
~ Business Website ~ http://www.djs-consulting.com                ~
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~ Personal E-mail  ~ "Personal Blog" as e-mail address            ~
~ Personal Blog    ~ http://daniel.summershome.org                ~
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V PS+ PE++ Y? !PGP t+ 5? X+ R* tv b+ DI++ D+ G- e h---- r+++ z++++

"Who is more irrational?  A man who believes in a God he doesn't see,
or a man who's offended by a God he doesn't believe in?" - Brad Stine

LX-i wrote:
> roch77@gmail.com wrote: 
> [snip] 
>
> Are you sure you're getting EBCDIC?  I know the 2200 used a 9-bit word,
> and straight binary FTP's dropped that 9th bit - you have to use "quote
> type l36" (or "quote type l 36", depending on your client) to enable
> 36-bit words.
> 
>
> Is this what's actually in the file on the mainframe?
>

The A-Series (along with its Burroughs Large Systems predecessors and
its Unisys successors) uses 8-bit EBCDIC characters.

The original poster hasn't replied to Doug or posted anything else
lately, so my guess is that the problem, whatever it was, is solved.

Louis

Free download from one of the best poorn galleries!
http://girls-with-toys.info/gal218571

<roch77@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a cobol data file from a unisys A series mainframe.
>
> 2 types of fields :
>
> pic 9 (xx) comp.  <= many fields of this type varying lengths
> pic X (15) .  <= only one field
>
> I am having a problem translating the pic X (display field).
>
> I ftp'd file from mainframe as binary.  Each record is 120 bytes.
>
> pic X field starts at byte 25 and the length is 15 bytes.
>
> I am using perl and unpack.
>
> When I did this:
>
> $string = unpack H240, $record
> the comp. fields come out fine and the display field is spit out in
> hex representation of EBCDIC which I can manually translate using a
> lookup table.
>
> ie: f3f4f2f4f1f9f8f7f8c3d4f0f0f0f1  = 342419878CM0001
>
> But I want to automate this.  I thought I was able to use an
> ebcdic2ascii function for this and translate the pic X field before
> being unpacked, but I am not getting the right answer..
>
> Can someone help pls?  I am a beginner with this translation stuff.
>
> To summarize, how do I translate a display field when file is ftp'd as
> binary?

See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216399#appliesto

At least that will give you the translation tables you need.
--
Judson McClendon      judmc@sunvaley0.com (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems     http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

On 29 Jun, 16:47, spamb...@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote:
> In article <1183131010.025069.104...@c77g2000hse.googlegroups.com>, roc...
@gmail.com wrote: 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
> Some indication of what you *are* getting would be helpful... as well as s
ome
> indication of how you're going about it -- not to mention what platform yo
u're
> working on.
>
>
> 
> 
>
> With an ebcdic-to-ascii conversion. Without knowing what you're doing now,
 and
> how it's not working, it's pretty hard to advise you how to fix it.
>
> --
> Regards,
>         Doug Miller (alphag at milmac dot com)
>
> It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.- Hide quoted 
text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

The US doesn't import much tea. Barely worth the gesture.

In article <1184092446.631998.166940@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com>,
Alistair  <alistair@ld50macca.demon.co.uk> wrote:

[snip]

>The US doesn't import much tea.

I'm not sure how 'much' is quantified here, Mr Maclean... according to
http://hi.baidu.com/zuileya/blog/it...cad1c86ae7.html ,
total tea imports into the US are 91,299,495 95,706,100 kilos.

DD