I have a flat file that was generated by a COBOL program which contains a combination of ASCII characters and pack decimals which I think are in binary format. The pack decimals are of COMP type (in Cobol). Can I use some of the io classes to convert these pack decimals to ASCII? Thanks.
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EBCDIC to ASCII in Java
- Thread starter koolraul
- Start date
sedj
Programmer
- Aug 6, 2002
- 5,610
If you know how many bits each of these characters make up a character in Java, then you could use the DataInputStream and the method readByte() to convert the chars.
(There may be an easier way, but that is the only one I can think of right now).
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Free Database Connection Pooling Software
(There may be an easier way, but that is the only one I can think of right now).
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Free Database Connection Pooling Software
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks sedj and Diancecht for your responses. I have the following snippet of codes to read the flat file that was generated by a COBOL program which contains a combination of ASCII characters and pack decimals which I think are in binary format. I was able to read and write the file but the binary coded decimals were still not being converted to ASCII. Any suggestions to improve or correct this? Thanks.
private static void convertAsciiToEbcdic(File file) {
try {
File ofile = new File("c:\\koolstuff\\ProductionSupport\\IFMSS\\us_err_files\\", "ofile.dat");
DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(
new BufferedInputStream(
new FileInputStream(file)));
DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(
new BufferedOutputStream(
new FileOutputStream(ofile)));
int aChar = 0;
while ((aChar = in.read()) > 0) {
out.write(aChar);
}
in.close();
out.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
}
private static void convertAsciiToEbcdic(File file) {
try {
File ofile = new File("c:\\koolstuff\\ProductionSupport\\IFMSS\\us_err_files\\", "ofile.dat");
DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(
new BufferedInputStream(
new FileInputStream(file)));
DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(
new BufferedOutputStream(
new FileOutputStream(ofile)));
int aChar = 0;
while ((aChar = in.read()) > 0) {
out.write(aChar);
}
in.close();
out.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
}
sedj
Programmer
- Aug 6, 2002
- 5,610
All that code is going to do is read and write the file without changing it.
The point of using a DataInputStream is so you can read the file on a byte by byte basis, and then convert your characters accordingly.
But you need to know the mapping between COBOL and Java characters - something YOU will have to write. Different languages and different OS's treat characters differently.
For example, on most OS's, a 'char' in C/C++ is a data type that is made up of 8 bits. But in Java, a 'char' takes up 16 bits. So if you were going to convert, then you would need to handle this by doing some bit shifting operations. See ? You need to know how many bits a 'char' is in COBOL/
--------------------------------------------------
Free Database Connection Pooling Software
The point of using a DataInputStream is so you can read the file on a byte by byte basis, and then convert your characters accordingly.
But you need to know the mapping between COBOL and Java characters - something YOU will have to write. Different languages and different OS's treat characters differently.
For example, on most OS's, a 'char' in C/C++ is a data type that is made up of 8 bits. But in Java, a 'char' takes up 16 bits. So if you were going to convert, then you would need to handle this by doing some bit shifting operations. See ? You need to know how many bits a 'char' is in COBOL/
--------------------------------------------------
Free Database Connection Pooling Software
- Thread starter
- #7
- Status