String data and attributes

This section describes string data types and attributes.

See Data types and attributes for general information about strings.

BIT, CHARACTER, GRAPHIC, UCHAR, and WIDECHAR attributes
This topic describes BIT, CHARACTER, GRAPHIC, UCHAR, and WIDECHAR attributes, shows the syntax for the attributes, and lists their abbreviations.
VARYING, VARYING4, VARYINGZ, and NONVARYING attributes
The VARYING, VARYING4, and VARYINGZ attributes specify that a variable can have a length varying from 0 to the declared maximum length. NONVARYING specifies that a variable always has a length equal to the declared length. VAR, VAR4, VARZ, and NONVAR can be used as abbreviations for the VARYING, VARYING4, VARYINGZ, and NONVARYING attributes respectively.
PICTURE and WIDEPIC attributes
The PICTURE attribute specifies the properties of a character data item by associating a picture character with each position of the data item. The WIDEPIC attribute specifies the properties of a WIDECHAR data item by associating a picture character with each position of the data item.
Character data
Data with the CHARACTER attribute can contain any of the 256 characters supported by the character set. Data with the PICTURE attribute must have characters that match the picture-specification characters.
Character constant
A character constant is a contiguous sequence of characters enclosed in single or double quotation marks.
A (ASCII) character constant
An A (ASCII) character constant is a character constant that ends with an A. The data in an A character constant is converted to ASCII.
E (EBCDIC) character constant
An E (EBCDIC) character constant is a character constant that ends with an E. The data in an E character constant is converted to EBCDIC.
X (hex) character constant
The X character constant is a contiguous sequence of an even number of hex digits enclosed in single or double quotation marks and followed immediately by the letter X. Each pair of hex digits represents one character.
Bit data
Data with the BIT attribute allows manipulation of storage in terms of bits. Each byte of storage is composed of 8 bits.
Bit constant
A bit constant is a contiguous sequence of binary digits enclosed in single or double quotation marks and followed immediately by the letter B.
B4 (hex) bit constant
The B4 bit constant is a contiguous sequence of hex digits enclosed in single or double quotation marks and followed immediately by B4. Each hex digit represents four bits. BX is a synonym for B4.
B3 (octal) bit constant
The B3 bit constant is a contiguous sequence of octal digits enclosed in single or double quotation marks and followed immediately by B3. Each octal digit represents three bits.
Graphic data
GRAPHIC data can contain any DBCS character. Each DBCS character occupies 2 bytes of storage.
Graphic constant
A graphic constant is a contiguous sequence of DBCS characters enclosed in single or double quotation marks. Graphic constants take up 2 bytes of storage for each DBCS character in the constant.
GX (hex) graphic constant
The GX graphic constant is a contiguous sequence of hex digits, in multiples of 4, enclosed in single or double quotation marks and followed immediately by GX. Each group of 4 hex digits represents one DBCS character.
Mixed character data
Mixed character data can contain SBCS and DBCS characters. Mixed data is represented by the CHARACTER data type, and follows the processing rules for CHARACTER data.
M (Mixed) character constant
An M constant is a contiguous sequence of DBCS and/or SBCS characters enclosed in quotation marks (single or double), followed immediately by the letter M.
UCHAR data
UCHAR data can contain any UTF-8 string. Each UCHAR occupies 1 to 4 bytes of storage.
UX (hex) UCHAR constant
The UX UCHAR constant is a contiguous sequence of hex digits, enclosed in single or double quotation marks and followed immediately by UX. The string must contain an even number of hex digits, and those hex digits must represent a valid UTF-8 string.
Widechar data
WIDECHAR can contain any UTF-16 character that fits into 2 bytes.
WX (hex) widechar constant
The WX widechar constant is a contiguous sequence of hex digits, in multiples of 4, enclosed in single or double quotation marks and followed immediately by WX. Each group of 4 hex digits represents one UTF-16 character.
Numeric character data
A numeric character data item is the value of a variable that has been declared with the PICTURE attribute with a numeric picture specification. The data item is the character representation of a decimal fixed-point or floating-point value.

Parent topic: Computational data types and attributes