Re: CSVR4 and UTF-8

[Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg

I see that Scott agreed that it would be nice if the web site did 
something to filter things.

I had the same opinion when we were dealing with these odd characters, 
as well as emojis, coming from our field app on iPhones. We had a 
development team writing the app, and I said, "Why do we, in a serious 
business setting, have to put up with this nonsense?"

And, "Why isn't the app blocking this stuff?"

I came to this list, asking these questions, and I think Scott (if I'm 
wrong on that, apologies, Scott!), along with others like Brian May, 
said, essentially, "Expectation IS reality!", in so many words.

Basically, people get used to being able to use little pictographs, and 
applications like Word, et al., replace our straight quotes with 
typography quotes (BTW, those came first in the history of typography!)

So we kind of HAVE to bear down and find a way to handle them - so far, 
my solution means some punctuation will be replaced by a blank, and 
those cute little smiling faces also.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! I don't like it, either.

Even making the text fields of your physical be UTF-8 or UTF-16 is not 
going to take care of everything - most of what is really national 
language-related, probably yes. But then there is the rest of our world!

Regards
Vern

On 5/5/2020 2:36 PM, Greg Wilburn wrote:
> Scott,
>
> Yes, I'm using your CSVR4 tool to read IFS files containing orders that I'm retrieving from an FTP server.  The data files are generated on a popular web platform.  I'm definitely not looking for you to do extra work on my behalf.
>
> I just made a "donation" to easy400 to download CVT101 to try.  It seems like this utility might do the trick.  It's a service pgm that uses iconv to convert from one code page to another.
>
> I also considered creating a database file and using CPYFRMIMPF - although that didn't seem like it did much for me.  In a test, I changed the file attributes to CCSID 1208 and did the CPYFRMIMPF.  It did get rid of the goofy characters.
>
> To be honest, I am really disappointed in the quality of data coming from a web platform of this caliber.  These guys do NO formatting or address validation of any kind.  They allow people to key anything into their own shipping address.  IMHO this is inexcusable given the tools available via web services today.
> (rant over).
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Klement
> Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2020 3:05 PM
> To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: CSVR4 and UTF-8
>
> Thomas,
>
> If your goal is to have fgets() return data in UCS-2, then you would not
> be able to use %STR, because %STR is not expecting UCS-2.
>
> Instead, you could manually scan the buffer (via %SCAN) for the x'0000'
> terminator, and then use something like memcpy or %SUBST (with a deref
> pointer to UCS2 field) to copy the appropriate length into an RPG
> VARUCS2 field.
>
> The OP would still run into the same problem when converting the UCS-2
> field to EBCDIC, but he'd be able to do scan/replace prior to that in
> his own code.
>
> Sounds like he might be using my CSVR4 tool, so maybe I should add UCS-2
> support...
>
> -SK
>
>
> On 5/5/2020 1:22 PM, Tools/400 wrote:
> > Hi Vern,
> >
> > One thing that could actually work is reading the data in ccsid UCS-2
> > (13488). That covers almost all character (or maybe even all
> > characters) of UTF-8. Then Greg could replace e.g. the SINGLE
> > QUOTATION MARKS by a charcater that can be translated to EBCDIC, for
> > example a SINGLE QUOTE ('). He could do the same for other characters
> > that have an almost equal counterpart in EBCDIC.
> >
> > Once that is done, he could translate the UCS-2 string to EBCDIC.
> > Basically that worked for me (quick and dirty test). But there is a
> > problem I do not understand. The key is that %str() does not work for
> > determing the length of the buffer returned by fgets().
> >
> > Here are some examples returned by fgets():
> >
> > EOL charcater: CRLF, o_CCSID=13488
> > 00000     FFDE0022 00410042 00430031 00320033   - █ú... .â.{......
> > 00010     0022002C 00222019 004200E4 00720062   - .........â.U.Ê.Â
> > 00020     0065006C 20190020 004200F6 0068006D   - .Á.%.....â.6.Ç._
> > 00030     0022002C 00220053 006F006D 00650020   - .......ë.?._.Á..
> > 00040     00530074 00720065 00650074 0022002C   - .ë.È.Ê.Á.Á.È....
> > 00050     00220053 006F006D 00650020 00430069   - ...ë.?._.Á...{.Ñ
> > 00060     00740079 0022002C 00220047 00650072   - .È.`.......å.Á.Ê
> > 00070     006D0061 006E0079 0022002C 00220022   - ._./.>.`........
> > 00080     002C0022 00340030 00370032 00310022   - ................
> > 00090     002C0031 00300030 0030002E 00300030   - ................
> > 000A0     00000A00 40404040 40404040 40404040   - ....
> >            -- where does this byte belong to???
> >               and why is LF = x'000A'?
> >
> > EOL character: LF, o_CCSID=13488
> > 00000     FFDE0022 00410042 00430031 00320033   - █ú... .â.{......
> > 00010     0022002C 00222019 004200E4 00720062   - .........â.U.Ê.Â
> > 00020     0065006C 20190020 004200F6 0068006D   - .Á.%.....â.6.Ç._
> > 00030     0022002C 00220053 006F006D 00650020   - .......ë.?._.Á..
> > 00040     00530074 00720065 00650074 0022002C   - .ë.È.Ê.Á.Á.È....
> > 00050     00220053 006F006D 00650020 00430069   - ...ë.?._.Á...{.Ñ
> > 00060     00740079 0022002C 00220047 00650072   - .È.`.......å.Á.Ê
> > 00070     006D0061 006E0079 0022002C 00220022   - ._./.>.`........
> > 00080     002C0022 00340030 00370032 00310022   - ................
> > 00090     002C0031 00300030 0030002E 00300030   - ................
> > 000A0     000A0040 40404040 40404040 40404040   - ...
> >            ---- why is LF = x'000A'?
> >
> > EOL character: CRLF, o_CCSID=0
> > 00000     FFDE7FC1 C2C3F1F2 F37F6B7F 3FC2C099   - █ú"ABC123",".Bär
> > 00010     8285933F 40C26A88 947F6B7F E2969485   - bel. Böhm","Some
> > 00020     40E2A399 8585A37F 6B7FE296 948540C3   -  Street","Some C
> > 00030     89A3A87F 6B7FC785 99948195 A87F6B7F   - ity","Germany","
> > 00040     7F6B7FF4 F0F7F2F1 7F6BF1F0 F0F04BF0   - ","40721",1000.0
> > 00050     F0250040 40404040 40404040 40404040   - 0..
> >              -- that is fine. LF = x'25' in EBCDIC
> >
> > I do not understand the last bytes of example 1 and 2. CRLF in UCS-2
> > should be x'240D' (CR) and x'240A' (LF), shouldn't it?
> >
> > How could we get the length of the buffer returned by fgets()?
> >
> > Thomas.
> >
> >
> > Am 05.05.2020 um 18:07 schrieb Vernon Hamberg:
> > > I agree, Thomas.
> > >
> > > UTF-8 has distinct byte patterns that identify them as UTF-8 - single
> > > bytes go up to 7F, that's the Basic Latin group on that site.
> > >
> > > One can scan through a UTF-8 text. Whenever you encounter a byte
> > > greater or equal to X'80', you have a UTF-8 character - some are 2
> > > bytes, some 3, some 4. Those of 2 bytes start with x'C?', etc.
> > >
> > > Greg mentions that he changed the file CCSID to 1208, and WRKLNK
> > > handles it better -  I saw that here when faced with emojis from
> > > people's iPhones. Our solution at the time - 3 years ago - was to use
> > > SQL's XMLTABLE - it knows what it doesn't know and gives you a
> > > placeholder - one of our developers looks like he wants to use
> > > substitute strings - I don't know how you keep up with that, but
> > > maybe he can. UTF-8 is such a moving target in some respects,
> > > especially emoji-like things. Do you replace the MOUSE FACE with the
> > > words in the message?
> > >
> > > Regards
> > > Vern
> > >
> > > On 5/5/2020 8:40 AM, Thomas Raddatz wrote:
> > > > Hi Vern,
> > > >
> > > > I did not notice the drop down for switching between the different
> > > > code planes of UTF-8. Hence I did not find the RIGHT SINGLE
> > > > QUOTATION MARK earlier.
> > > >
> > > > x'F3' is the same that I get for RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK when I
> > > > call CSVDEMO for a VSC file that contains that character. So that is
> > > > the same a SQL.
> > > >
> > > > I do not tink there is a nice solution for Greg. The only thing I
> > > > have in mind is reading the CSV data as UTF8 and then replace
> > > > character not available in EBCDIC. At the end convert the resulting
> > > > UTF8 string to EBCDIC and continue with splitting the row into parts.
> > > >
> > > > Thomas
> > > >
> > > > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > > > Von: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Im
> > > > Auftrag von Vernon Hamberg
> > > > Gesendet: Dienstag, 5. Mai 2020 08:59
> > > > An: RPG programming on IBM i
> > > > Betreff: Re: CSVR4 and UTF-8
> > > >
> > > > Thomas - take a look at U+2018 and U+2019 and U+201C and U+201D. U+2019
> > > > in that page - a great site - is RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK.
> > > >
> > > > U+2018     ‘     e2 80 98     LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
> > > > U+2019     ’     e2 80 99     RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
> > > > U+201A     ‚     e2 80 9a     SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
> > > > U+201B     ‛     e2 80 9b     SINGLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK
> > > > U+201C     “     e2 80 9c     LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
> > > > U+201D     ”     e2 80 9d     RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > These are among several characters that don't exist in EBCDIC - an
> > > > ellipsis or em dash. We had run into this challenge with text
> > > > entered on
> > > > an iPhone app. And these can come form the Autocorrect options in MS
> > > > Word or Outlook.
> > > >
> > > > I ended up using SQL on i to import the text, and it puts X'3F'
> > > > where it
> > > > encounters characters it can't convert.
> > > >
> > > > Greg asks about recommendations - maybe the only 1 to retain the
> > > > characters would be to use 1208 (UTF-8) as the CCSID - of course, that
> > > > can't be done without a whole lot of work.
> > > >
> > > > And IBM do not provide conversion tables between UTF-8 and EBCDIC - how
> > > > could you, at least in their present form.
> > > >
> > > > Does iconv have options to convert these typographer (another
> > > > descriptor
> > > > of these things) characters into something like EBCDIC?
> > > >
> > > > Cheers
> > > > Vern
> > > >
> > > > On 5/5/2020 1:02 AM, Thomas Raddatz wrote:
> > > > > I do not know what you mean with ' right single quotation mark '. I
> > > > > assume it is a ACUTE ACCENT or a GRAVE ACCENT according to UTF8
> > > > > table https://www.utf8-chartable.de/.
> > > > >
> > > > > I did a brief test with service program CSVR4 and the following
> > > > > test data on our IBM i:
> > > > >
> > > > > "ABC123","Scott Klement","123 Sesame St","Milwaukee,
> > > > > WI","USA","","53132-1234",1000.00
> > > > > "ABC123","Bärbel Böhm","Some Street","Some
> > > > > City","Germany","","40721",1000.00
> > > > > "ABC123","`Jürgen` ´Bärbeißer´","Some Street","Some
> > > > > City","Germany","","40721",1000.00
> > > > >
> > > > > The report produced by CSVDEMO shows the result expected:
> > > > >
> > > > > File  . . . . . :   QSYSPRT
> > > > > Control . . . . .
> > > > > Find  . . . . . .
> > > > > *...+....1....+....2....+....3...
> > > > > Acct        Name
> > > > > ----------  ---------------------
> > > > > ABC123      Scott Klement
> > > > > ABC123      Bärbel Böhm
> > > > > ABC123      `Jürgen` ´Bärbeißer´
> > > > >
> > > > > The German Umlaute as well as the ACUTE ACCENT and GRAVE ACCENT are
> > > > > correctly printed. Hence I assume that CSVR4 works fine.
> > > > >
> > > > > We do not use CSVR4, so a brief test is all I can do.
> > > > >
> > > > > Did you check the CCSID of your inpput? Is it 1208 (= UTF8)?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thomas.
> > > > >
> > > > > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > > > > Von: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Im
> > > > > Auftrag von Greg Wilburn
> > > > > Gesendet: Montag, 4. Mai 2020 16:24
> > > > > An: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > > Betreff: CSVR4 and UTF-8
> > > > >
> > > > > I have a program that is using the CSVR4 service programs to read
> > > > > tab delimited text files that we pull down from a website.  The
> > > > > site is using UTF-8 character set... occasionally, we have issues
> > > > > with character translation.
> > > > >
> > > > > Example:  x'e2 80 99' (right single quotation mark) makes a real
> > > > > mess of the customer's name.
> > > > >
> > > > > I have a utility that removes non-display characters, but in this
> > > > > case I need to keep the character.
> > > > >
> > > > > Any recommendations on changes that could be made to the process
> > > > > that would eliminate some of these translation issues?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Greg