Double-Byte Character Sets (DBCS) |
Another type
of DBCS encoding exists on mainframe systems, which combine DBCS support with
the 3270-style data stream. Each DBCS character string is surrounded by escape
codes called shift out/shift in, or SO/SI. These codes
originated from the need for the old-style printers to shift out from the
EBCDIC character set, to the DBCS character set. The major manufacturers have
different encodings for SO/SI; some manufacturers pad DBCS code with one byte
of shift code information while others pad the DBCS code with two bytes of
shift code information. These differences can cause problems in reading DBCS
information about mainframes.
PCs, minicomputers, and workstations do not have SO/SI but have
their own types of DBCS encodings that differ from manufacturer to manufacturer.
SAS has several formats and informats that can read DBCS on SO/SI systems:
SAS Formats and Informats That Support DBCS on SO/SI Systems
Keyword |
Language Element |
Description |
$KANJI |
informat |
Removes SO/SI from Japanese kanji DBCS |
$KANJIX |
informat |
Adds SO/SI to Japanese kanji DBCS |
$KANJI |
format |
Adds SO/SI to Japanese kanji DBCS |
$KANJIX |
format |
Removes SO/SI from Japanese kanji DBCS |
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