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The section lists COBOL data division features that the BusinessWorks COBOL Copybook Plug-in supports and the features it does not support. The information is organized as follows:
This release of BusinessWorks COBOL Copybook Plug-in introduces new features and functionality. For a complete, detailed list, see TIBCO BusinessWorks COBOL Copybook Plug-in Release Notes. During migration, the new features may cause the plug-in to work differently than expected. To ensure the integrity of your data, please note the following recommendation.Install the plug-in and test the processes. If the results are as expected, then migrate the processes to the new version of the plug-in.
Table 1 Supported COBOL Usages The data element with this usage is converted to the xs:float type in the output XSD schema. The data element with this usage is converted to the xs:double type in the output XSD schema.Note: Only IEEE 754 representation is supported for the COMP-1 and COMP-2 fields. IBM Hexadecimal Floating point is not supported and will yield incorrect results. The data element with this usage is converted to the xs:integer type in the output XSD schema. The data element with this usage is converted to the xs:long type in output XSD schema.
Table 2 Supported COBOL Picture Types The data element with this picture type is converted to the xs:string type in the output XSD schema. External Floating Point The data element with this picture type is converted to the xs:double type in the output XSD schema. If the picture for a data element has a decimal value, the clause is converted to the xs:decimal type in the output XSD schema.If the picture for a data element does not have any decimal value, the data element is converted to the signed or unsigned integer or short type in the output XSD schema.Whether the converted-to type is signed or unsigned integer is decided by the presence of sign character in the picture.If the number of digits in the picture is 5 or more, the data element is converted to integer type. Otherwise, it is converted to short.
The data element defined as a fixed length table using the OCCURS clause. The data element defined as a variable length table using the OCCURS ... DEPENDING ON clause. The data elements that are defined using the REDEFINES clause are converted to the xs:choice type in the output XSD schema. The copybook supports multiple data element definitions. Within a schema, each data element definition is treated as a group element when you convert the copybook to XSD. The VALUE clause is reflected in the XSD schema and the Render Copybook Data activity will generate that value for items that do not have values supplied in the input data.Numeric values in COBOL files are commonly stored in display or character format. That is, the value is stored as a base-10 number, with each digit represented by the corresponding character. For example, a field defined as PIC 999 containing the value 123 is stored in three bytes, each byte containing one digit of the value.When performing computations with numbers, machines can perform the computations significantly faster on binary (base-2) numbers rather than base-10 numbers. Therefore, if a number is stored in a COBOL data file in binary format, it can be input directly from the file and used in computations. Various flavours of usage COMP (such as COMP, COMP-4, and so on), are used to change the storage format from text to a binary form.In COBOL, for integer fields, usage COMP is used to specify a storage of half word, full word, or double word (2, 4, and 8 bytes, respectively, big-endian representation). However, for COMP usage there is an additional limitation based on the number of decimal digits in the PICTURE clause. For instance PIC S9(4) COMP will have signed half word storage, but it will limit the values to the range of -9999 though +9999 due to 4 decimal places in the PICTURE clause.In order to remove the above limitation, COMP-5 can be used. This usage is the same as COMP, but it allows the whole range of values representable by a particular number of storage bytes. For example PIC S9(4) COMP-5 has a half-word storage and allows the range of values of -32768 though +32767.
The data elements defined using the level 66 (RENAMES clause) are ignored. The data elements defined using the level 88 (VALUE or VALUES clause) are ignored. This clause is ignored when the copybook is converted to the XSD schema. Copybooks that contain the COPY directive for other copybooks are not supported.
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− These phrases for the SYNCHRONIZED clause are ignored.
− Items with usage DISPLAY and a numeric PICTURE clause are treated as zoned decimal data unless SIGN SEPARATE is specified. This format uses textual representation for all decimal digits except the last or first byte (depending on LEADING or TRAILING in SIGN clause). This byte contains both the decimal value and the sign for the whole value. The sign is specified in the first nibble (half byte) and the decimal digit in the second nibble.There are three variations of the zoned decimal format – EBCDIC, Strict ASCII, and Modified ASCII. The BusinessWorks COBOL Copybook Plug-in expects a particular format depending on the Character Set configuration value that is specified for the Render Copybook Data or Parse Copybook Data activity. For details on the configuration of these activities, see Chapter 2.
• The Parse Copybook Data activity expects EBCDIC zoned decimal format and fails if any of the ASCII format data is encountered. EBCDIC zoned decimal format uses EBCDIC codepoints for digits and defines the following sign nibbles for the sign byte: xC and xA – sign positive, xD and xB – sign negative, xF – unsigned value. Positive and negative nibbles are used with signed items (with S in the PICTURE clause), xF is used for unsigned items (no S in the PICTURE). Note that the unsigned nibble is not valid for signed items and vice versa – the signed nibbles are not valid in an unsigned item.
• The Render Copybook Data activity will generate signed nibbles xC and xD for positive and negative signed values, respectively. For unsigned data, xF will be generated.
• The Parse Copybook Data will accept both Strict ASCII and Modified ASCII. Both formats use ASCII codepoints for decimal digits, but the sign byte is represented differently. For Strict ASCII, a nibble value x3 denotes positive and x7 negative value for the entire item. Note that there is no special value for unsigned data. Modified ASCII does not have predefined nibbles, see Table 5, Modified ASCII Sign Byte.
If the input data for the Parse Copybook Data activity does not conform to the expected format, an error will occur during execution.If SIGN SEPARATE is specified, the data is represented as text in the selected character set with characters '+' or '-'.
Table 5 Modified ASCII Sign Byte Decimal Digit in Sign Byte
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