Re: CCSID Conversion

[Simon Coulter <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 16/03/2005, at 6:18 AM, Brescia, Richard wrote:

> Is there an easy way on the Iseries (V5R2) to convert English 
> characters
> to Japanese either through PF, LF, or PRTF using the CCSID keyword?

CCSID conversion does not do language translation. Notice the different 
use of words: CCSIDs are for 'conversion' not 'translation'. Their 
purpose is to ensure that a given character retains its meaning when 
moving data between different code pages and character sets. For 
example, a US dollar sign will be treated as a Pound Sterling symbol if 
viewed using a UK code page without conversion. Tagging the original 
data with CCSID 37 (US) allows the dollar sign to stay as a dollar sign 
when viewed with CCSID 285 (UK). They do not convert text in one 
language into another.

> Or is there a conversion API with an associate translation table I 
> could
> use?

The conversion APIs are not translation APIs. All they do is use either 
a CCSID or a conversion table to ensure characters maintain integrity 
in different code pages and character sets.

>             I read something that if your system is has the CCSID set 
> to
> 65535 a conversion is not possible.  Is this true?

Having the system value QCCSID set to 65535 or the job CCSID set to 
65535 means you are telling the system you don't want conversion to 
occur and that data should be read as hexadecimal values. Running with 
QCCSID set to 65535 is dumb--even though that's how most sites run.

Each job has two values governing CCSID conversion:
        o Job CCSID
        o Job Default CCSID

Run DSPJOB option 2 and go to the 3rd page. Put the cursor on the two 
CCSID value and press Help. Read.

In some cases the system will ignore a job CCSID of 65535 and use the 
default job CCSID instead.

>             My goal is to print an item label in Japanese or English
> depending on which user and printer is being used.

Then you must handle the translation yourself. You must externalise the 
text you want to print on the label. Message files are a good method 
for doing this but you could use database files. You then retrieve the 
appropriate text according to the user and printer. The usual way is to 
have one message file with English text, duplicate it and translate 
manually into Japanese, then at run time set your library list 
appropriately so the correct message file is found. If you use an 
externally described printer file then you can get the system to 
retrieve the message text for you. Investigate the MSGCON keyword.

You should also read the information IBM provides about 
internationalising your application. Start at the Globalisation section 
of the Information Centre.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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