Re: P.P.S.: Re: Issues with code page conversion..grateful for any help -- RPG400-L

OK - this might bei the problem.

You say, your string is displayed as "Zakªad" in 273 and as "Zakład" in 870.

Have you tried to convert that "Zakªad" from 273 to 870? Does this result in a string "Zakład"?

If yes - thats what you need to do, before writing it into UTF-8. The string "Zakªad" in 273 does not give the same UTF-8 result as "Zakład" in 870. Of course, the system will try to convert 'ª' to the correct Unicode code point for a small, superscripted "a" - because thats what you give it.

The string, that you want to write to UTF-8 has to be in the correct CCSID (870) and must contain the correct value "Zakład". Otherwise the system will not convert that string correctly to Unicode and then to UTF-8.

Try it with a small RPG program:

dcl-s char273 varchar(100) ccsid(273) inz('Zakªad');
dcl-s char870 varchar(100) ccsid(870) inz;

char870 = char273;

exec sql
CALL QSYS2.IFS_WRITE(
PATH_NAME => trim(:Path),
LINE => :char870,
END_OF_LINE => 'NONE',
FILE_CCSID => 1208,
OVERWRITE => 'REPLACE');

I haven't tried it - but the hope is, that the replacement characters from CCSID 273 are correctly transferred back to CCSID 870 and then to UTF-8.

HTH
Daniel

Am 31.03.2026 um 16:34 schrieb Birgitta Hauser <Hauser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

Hi Sean,

Have you checked the Hex-Values?
From What CCSID are you converting?
If the base is CCSID 273 the ł is not in the character set. Instead of the ł a substitution character would have been used.
... and a substitution will not return a good value.

Try to run the following SQL Statement:
Values(Cast('Zakład' as VarChar(50) CCSID 1208), Cast('Zakład' as VarChar(50) CCSID 273), Cast('Zakład' as VarChar(50) CCSID 870));
If you run it in ACS, you'll see a substitution character in the 2nd Column (German), in the other columns the ł is displayed correctly.

The following SQL Statement generates the Hex values for the previous SQL Statement:
Values(Hex(Cast('Zakład' as VarChar(50) CCSID 1208)), Hex(Cast('Zakład' as VarChar(50) CCSID 273)), Hex(Cast('Zakład' as VarChar(50) CCSID 870)));

The result is:
5A616BC5826164 (UTF-8)
E981923F8184 CCSID 273 (x'EF' is the substitution character ... which will be used for all characters that are not in the appropriate character set)
E981929A8184 CCSID 870

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Birgitta Hauser
Modernization – Education – Consulting on IBM i
Database and Software Architect
IBM Champion since 2020

"Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." (Les Brown)
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." (Derek Bok)
"What is worse than training your staff and losing them? Not training them and keeping them!"
"Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to. " (Richard Branson)
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-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of scourtney@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, 31 March 2026 15:24
To: 'Daniel Gross' <daniel@xxxxxxxx>; rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: P.P.S.: Re: Issues with code page conversion..grateful for any help

Hi Daniel,

The polish alphabet hast the following special characters : ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż

The fourth character should be : Ł, ł (L with stroke): Sounds like English 'w' (like w in "water").

In my example I want Zakªad to output to Zakład

--
I create my outfile with :
exec sql
CALL QSYS2.IFS_WRITE(
PATH_NAME => trim(:Path),
LINE => '',
END_OF_LINE => 'NONE',
FILE_CCSID => 1208,
OVERWRITE => 'REPLACE')

And I write to it with

exec sql
CALL QSYS2.IFS_WRITE(
PATH_NAME => trim(:Path),
LINE => trim(:data),
OVERWRITE => 'APPEND',
END_OF_LINE => 'CRLF');

Where Data is defined as

dcl-s Data varchar(1000) ccsid(1208);

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards / Bien à vous,

Seán

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Gross <daniel@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, 31 March 2026 15:08
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: scourtney@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: P.P.S.: Re: Issues with code page conversion..grateful for any help

P.P.S.:

What do you expect the UTF-8 value to be? You know, that CCSIDs 870 and 273 are EBCDIC CCSIDs - and UTF-8 is Unicode - and it's loosely based on ASCII.

So if you look at a UTF-8 file in raw format from IBM i side, it should look like "garbage" - But if you read it again (like with IFS_READ) you should see the correct values.

Also - have you checked the CCSID of the IFS file? If the file already exists, the IFS_WRITE_UTF8 doesn't change it, but it write out UTF-8. If you read the file again, the CCSID has to be UTF-8, because it can only find out should coding to use, if the files CCSID is correctly set.

These are just some thoughts.

HTH
Daniel

Am 31.03.2026 um 14:49 schrieb Daniel Gross <daniel@xxxxxxxx>:

Hi Sean,

is the original data in the correct CCSID?

I would give it a try

dcl-s origVal varchar(100) ccsid(870) inz('Zakład');
dcl-s utf8Val varchar(100) ccsid(*utf8) inz;

utf8Val = origVal;
origVal = utf8Val;

And debug this step by step. What is in those 2 strings? Are the values correct?

In the next step, try to write origVal to a test-file with IFS_WRITE_UTF8 - and compare.

If the CCSIDs are correct, you shouldn't have problems with UTF8 and other CCSIDs.

HTH
Daniel

P.S.: can you post the hex values of the original value (in CCSID 870) and the UTF8 value please?

Am 31.03.2026 um 14:34 schrieb scourtney@xxxxxxxxxxx:

Hi Daniel,

Firstly, thank you for your reply ...

That is what I thought as well but it does not seem to be so simple...

If I look at the data with ccsid 273 I get this "Zakªad" and with ccsid 870 I get 'Zakład'

If I write the data to UFT-8 File with ccsid 1208 I get the wrong output.

How do I get the correct value to my output file... Ideas appreciated.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards / Bien à vous,

Seán

-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Daniel Gross
Sent: Monday, 30 March 2026 19:46
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Issues with code page conversion..grateful for any help

Hi Sean,

with UTF-8 there is no such thing as a codepage anymore - because UTF-8 is short for "Unicode Transfer Format 8 Bit" - so this is full Unicode.

If you want your file to be written with a specific CCSID, you have to use QSYS2.IFS_WRITE with the FILE_CCSID parameter.

You can also use this function for UTF-8 - that would be FILE_CCSID=>1208 then - as CCSID 1208 would be UTF-8.

HTH
Daniel

Am 30.03.2026 um 19:01 schrieb scourtney@xxxxxxxxxxx:

Hello all,

I am using “QSYS2.IFS_WRITE_UTF8” to generate a UTF8 Output file.

So far so good … I have data with Polish special characters that
must be sent with correct CCSID (870)

I use

EXEC SQL SET :chr870 = CAST(:myData AS CHAR(100) CCSID 870) to convert my data to CCSID 870 but when I write

To my output file the special characters are not written correctly.

Any ides on how to write these special characters to UTF8 without
losing the code page …

I have tried a few things but no success yet… I am hoping the CCSID guru’s out there have a few ideas for me.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards / Bien à vous,

Sean

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