Variable-Length Records

Because insertion of SO and SI characters increases the output record length, you must define the output data set with enough space in the output record. The input data set's record length plus the additional number of bytes necessary to insert the SO and SI pairs must not exceed the maximum record length of the output data set. Each SO and SI pair consists of 2 bytes. If the output record length is too small, an error message will be issued, a return code of 12 will be returned from IEBGENER, and the command will be ended.

In the following example for a variable-length record, the input record length is 50 bytes and consists of four DBCS string surrounded by SO and SI pairs. The output record length is 50 bytes which is too small because the SO and SI pairs add eight extra bytes to the record length. The output record length should be at least 58 bytes.

   Input record length = 50; number of SO and SI pairs = 4
   Output record length = 50 (too small; should be at least 58 bytes)