MBCS Support

Sterling Connect:Direct® for z/OS® Multibyte Character Set (MBCS) support enables you to convert between Unicode and other code sets supported on the z/OS platform. To perform an MBCS conversion, use the CODEPAGE parameter of the COPY statement FROM and/or TO SYSOPTS clauses .

You can perform MBCS conversions in the following ways:

Perform a conversion on the FROM node only and then send the Unicode file to the TO node.
Send a file to the TO node and let that node perform the conversion.
Perform a conversion from one z/OS compatible code set to a Unicode code set supported on the local node (specified in the FROM clause CODEPAGE parameter). Then send the encoded Unicode file to the remote node to be converted to another z/OS compatible code set.

Instead of requiring that each Sterling Connect:Direct node provide the capability to convert from any supported character set to any other supported character set, the recommended approach is to convert the original character set to a common intermediate form (UTF-8 or UCS-2) on the local node, transmit the intermediate form to the remote node, and then perform the conversion to the final desired character set on the remote node. This way, each node is responsible only for conversion between the Unicode encoding and the character sets relevant to and supported by the node.

To display the CODEPAGE specification for a COPY step in a Process after step completion, use the Select Statistics command for an SY Statistics record. Each node involved in a COPY generates an SY record containing the SYSOPTS relevant to that node.

Except for syntax, the CODEPAGE parameter is not validated when the Process is submitted. However, when the Process is executed, an MBCS001E error will result on the node attempting the conversion if an invalid code set is specified.

The following are examples of COPY performing MBCS conversion:

MBCS Conversion During z/OS to UNIX Copy
MBCS Conversion During Microsoft Windows to z/OS Copy
MBCS Conversion During z/OS to z/OS Copy

Note: To convert between Unicode (ISO 10646) and other code sets, Sterling Connect:Direct makes calls to system routines which are part of the optional z/OS Language Environment component – National Language Support. Verify that your z/OS installation supports the code set conversions specified in the Process language.