Data Attributes

Data attributes specify the external format for a date, time, or variable-length character, graphic, or UCS-2 field.

For date and time data, if no date or time format is specified, then the format/separator specified for the file (with either DATFMT or TIMFMT or both) is used. If there is no external date or time format specified for the file, then an error message is issued. See Table 33 and Table 36 for valid date and time formats.

For character, graphic, and UCS-2 data, the *VAR data attribute is used to specify variable-length output fields. If this entry is blank for character, graphic, and UCS-2 data, then the external format is fixed length. For more information on variable-length fields, see Variable-Length Character, Graphic and UCS-2 Formats.

Note:

The number of bytes occupied in the output record depends on the format specified. For example, a date written in *MDY format requires 8 bytes, but a date written in *ISO format requires 10 bytes.

For more information on external formats, see Internal and External Formats.

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