How was the file on MVS created? If by Focus, then you want a HOLD FORMAT ALPHA or SAVE, so that all the values are 'human readable'. Then, you can FTP the file, not as BINARY, but as ASCII.

If you created the file as HOLD or SAVB, the characters are in text, while the numbers are in 'internal format'. If you use FTP with BINARY, you'll only be able to read INTEGERS, as DOS and MVS have a different way of storing floating point (D or F) numbers. Packed will probably work, as well, because WEBFocus handles packed format on the PC (it's not a 'native' format).

If, on the other hand, you FTP'd the file as ASCII, FTP wouldn't KNOW how to transfer the numbers in internal format, but COULD translate the alpha fields.

The file was created using a cobol program. So the numeric numbers are PIC S9(14)V9(4) COMP-3 , PIC 9(11) ,...

You are right.
If the file is ascii FTPed :
   - I can read alpha fields using Webfocus but I am not able to read the numeric fields.

If the file is binary FTPed :
   - I can read numeric and packed numeric using Webfocus but I am not able to read the alpha fields (which are EBCDIC coded on the PC because of the binary transfer). it should be great whether Webfocus could read them using EBCDIC encoding   ).

The solution I found is to unpack (with JCL) the numeric fields before FTP transfer. But I am not sure to be able to do that. Do you see an other way?

There are several options available, depending on how much effort and dollars you want to invest.

The easiest to say (but perhaps the most difficult to implement) is to change the Cobol program, so numeric fields are NOT COMP-3. Then, as character strings, everything can be FTP'd, as ASCII.

If you have Focus on MVS, you can have Focus re-write the file, converting the internal format to 'external' (ALPHA) format, then FTP it as above.

As you pointed out, I'm SURE there's some IBM utility, which can convert EBCDIC to ASCII. The only problem is, I'm not sure it can do it on a column by column selection.

There's also IBI's Data Migrator. it may give you what you need.
 

Hello,
Thank you for your help,

We decided to use a Cobol program to make the file "FTPable".

FYI : A IBM Utility called IceTool could have been used too.

Tks

there's the FTOA and PTOA functions, converting floating point to alpha and packed to alpha, in the focus language.
might that work for you at all?

-SUSANNAH