Contracting conversions

A contracting conversion occurs when the length of the converted string is smaller than that of the source string.

For example, a contracting conversion occurs when an EBCDIC mixed data string that contains DBCS characters is converted to ASCII mixed data due to the removal of shift codes.

Contracting conversions also can occur when string data is converted to or from Unicode data. It can also occur between UTF-8 and UTF-16, depending on the data being converted.