Working with ASCII data

When you are working with an ASCII file, you can use the ASCII editing facility to translate data from and to ASCII when displaying and receiving input from the terminal.

The ASCII editing facility converts the ASCII data to the corresponding EBCDIC representation prior to displaying at the terminal. Also, when you enter data from the terminal, the data is converted from the CCSID of the terminal to ASCII before being stored in the file you are editing.

To activate the ASCII editing facility for a PDS member or data set select 1 (ASCII) for the Data Encoding option on the edit entry panel. Otherwise start editing the member or data set and then issue the command SOURCE ASCII.

The ASCII editing facility is automatically invoked for a z/OS® UNIX file tagged with a CCSID of 819. The following can be used to activate the ASCII editing facility for a z/OS UNIX file that is not tagged with a CCSID of 819:

Select 1 (ASCII) for the Data Encoding option on the Edit/View entry panel.
Specify the ASCII parameter when calling the EDIT or VIEW services.
Specify the EA (Edit - ASCII) or VA (View - ASCII) line commands on the z/OS UNIX directory list display.

When using the ASCII editing facility with a z/OS UNIX file, ISPF ensures the file's CCSID is set to 819 when the file is saved.

Note: If you try to use the ASCII editing facility with a file enabled for z/OS UNIX automatic codeset conversion, ISPF does not invoke the ASCII editing facility and codeset conversion is used to convert the data to EBCDIC.

The ISPF editor then treats the source data as though it is ASCII data and converts it from ASCII to the CCSID of the terminal for display purposes, although the data remains unchanged within the file. When you input or modify data at the terminal, the ISPF editor translates the data entered from the CCSID of the terminal to ASCII before storing the data in the file.

While editing a PDS member or data set, you can revert back to a normal mode, where the data is not translated from and to ASCII when displaying and receiving input from the terminal, by issuing the command:

RESET SOURCE