On Wed, 5 Jul 2023 14:16:27 -0400, Matt Hogstrom <m...@hogstrom.org> wrote: >I recently ran into a question that I didn’t know the answer to. The >question was, what code page are dataset names and other z/OS artifacts coded >in? Since the special characters like #, $ and @ are different in codepages >1047, versus 037, etc does z/OS use one code page for these artifacts and >translate if a data set is created with JCL created with 1047 and is later >accessed using an 037 code page for instance ?
This came up just last week over on StackOverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76569347/what-are-the-supported-code-points-for-special-characters-for-valid-z-os-datas Those three characters are the "national characters" that are, confusingly, the same code points but different glyphs in different NLS code pages. A note about them in the JCL Reference at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=parameters-character-sets explains that the characters supported are specifically "the U.S. National characters; @ as X'7C'; $ as X'5B'; and # as X'7B'" and lookalike characters on other countries' terminals may cause errors. Hyphen '-' and all the other special characters used in JCL, on the other hand, should be invariant in all EBCDIC code pages. I haven't found documentation saying so, but they're the same in all the code pages documented for the CMS Pipelines XLATE stage. (Figure 401 at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSB27U_7.3.0/pdf/c2462521.pdf) And then there's the weird one that wasn't on the standard 3270 keyboard: x'c0' is valid in data set names (but not catalog entries, so it can only be used in uncataloged data sets) and member names. It's a left-bracket in some pages, and a different-shaped left-bracket in APL, but a letter with a diacritic in others. The JCL Reference specifies it at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=definition-unqualified-name as "a character X'C0'", not by appearance at all. ¬R ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
