You can use IEBGENER to copy, edit, reblock, or print data sets that contain double-byte character set (DBCS) data. You can also convert sequential data sets containing DBCS data to partitioned data sets. Double-byte character sets are used to represent languages too complex to be represented with a single-byte character set. Japanese, for example, requires a double-byte character set.

DBCS data is typically enclosed in shift-out/shift-in X'0E' and X'0F' single-byte characters to indicate that the data must be handled as pairs of bytes and not single bytes. Shift-out indicates that the data is now shifting out of a single-byte character set string and into a double-byte character set string, and shift-in indicates that a double-byte character set string is shifting into a single-byte character set string. You can add or delete the shift-out/shift-in characters using IEBGENER. If you add them to a data set, however, you must account for the additional bytes they will require when you determine the logical record length of the output data set. You can also validate DBCS data using IEBGENER. DBCS data is not considered "valid" unless each byte of every character has a value between X'41' and X'FE', inclusive, or unless the DBCS character is a DBCS space (X'4040'). This checking will ensure that each DBCS character is printable.

In order to print a data set containing DBCS data, the DBCS strings must be enclosed in shift-out/shift-in characters.