Re: What exactly is a "Binary Character" field?

On 6/16/15 12:21 PM, CRPence wrote:

On 16-Jun-2015 12:19 -0600, James H. H. Lampert wrote:

It sounds oxymoronic.

What exactly is a "Binary Character" field?
"5" instead of "A" in the DDS;

AFaIK: In DDS specification, I believe that would be: "H" instead of
"A". Probably also the same effect [a Binary Character field] is seen
for a field defined with the [resolved] field-level keyword of CCSID and
the specification of 65535 [or possibly the special-value *HEX, if
supported].

The Ignorance Center (and empirical data) say "Binary Character" is "5" in both DDS and QUSLFLD, and that "H" is "Hexadecimal."

<http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_i5_54/rzakb/ldata.htm?lang=en>

But that still doesn't say what in blazes "Binary Character" IS. Whether it's some new kind of shift (wouldn't that be a keyword, rather than a data type?), or whatever.

I did just run a test, creating a file from

A R FOO
A BAR 85
A BAZ 8A

and got this in DSPFFD:

Data Field Buffer Buffer
Field Type Length Length Position
BAR BINCHAR 8 8 1
Keyboard shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . : B
Coded Character Set Identifier . . . . . : 65535
BAZ CHAR 8 8 9
Coded Character Set Identifier . . . . . : 37

--
JHHL