How z/OS Debugger handles characters that cannot be displayed in their declared data type

In the Monitor window, z/OS® Debugger uses one of the following characters to indicate that a character cannot be displayed in its declared data type:

• For COBOL and PL/I programs, z/OS Debugger displays a dot (X'4B').
• For assembler and LangX COBOL programs, z/OS Debugger displays a quotation mark (").
• For C and C++ programs, z/OS Debugger displays the character as an escape sequence.

Characters that cannot be displayed in their declared data type can vary from code page to code page, but, in general, these are characters that have no corresponding symbol that can be displayed on a screen.

To be able to modify these characters, you can use the HEX and DEF prefix commands to help you verify which character you are modifying.

Refer to the following topics for more information related to the material discussed in this topic.

• Related tasks
• Modifying characters that cannot be displayed in their declared data type