Mixed mode

A Mixed Mode field is included on the View Entry Panel and the Edit Entry Panel:

_ Mixed Mode

The Mixed Mode field specifies whether you want to view, browse, or edit unformatted mixed data that contains both EBCDIC (single-byte) and DBCS (double-byte) characters. Use a slash to select mixed mode. If your terminal does not support DBCS, the value in this field is ignored.

DBCS strings are enclosed with SO (X'0E') and SI (X'0F') characters in unformatted mixed data. The SO character precedes the DBCS character string and the SI character follows the string.

If the view, browse, or edit line contains mixed data that are not valid, ISPF assumes the line can contain only EBCDIC characters. Examples of mixed data that are not valid include:

Unpaired SO and SI characters
Incorrect DBCS characters between SO and SI characters
An odd number of bytes between SO and SI characters.

If you call View, Browse, or Edit from the Library utility (option 3.1) or the Data Set List utility (option 3.4), ISPF assumes that you want to use mixed mode.

If you want to view, browse, or edit DBCS data as EBCDIC data, you must do so in non-mixed mode. You can do this by operating from a terminal that does not support DBCS or by deselecting the Mixed Mode field.

In non-mixed mode, SO and SI characters are not treated as special characters; instead, they are treated as characters that cannot be displayed. Thus, you can view, browse, or edit the data in the conventional way.

You can also view, browse, or edit DBCS data in hexadecimal format, just as you would EBCDIC data. For information about specifying hexadecimal display, see the information about "HEX-Displaying Data in Hexadecimal Format" in the View (Option 1) topic in the z/OS V2R2 ISPF User's Guide Vol II.

Note: Do not edit a record in hexadecimal format when a DBCS string encroaches on the display boundary.

DBCS data that is not valid is not supported. If DBCS fields or DBCS strings in a mixed field contain any bytes with hexadecimal code ranging from X'00' to X'3F', you may get unwanted results.