Data Transformation Engine Functions and Expressions Reference Guide

Chapter 3 - Function Reference CONVERT

Functions and Expressions Reference Guide

CONVERT

The CONVERT function replaces each byte of a byte stream or text expression with

a byte from another byte stream or text expression. The decimal value of each

byte of the first argument is used to locate the corresponding byte in the second

argument that will replace it.

Syntax

CONVERT ( single-byte-stream-or-text-expression , single-

byte-stream-or-text-expression )

Meaning

CONVERT (bytes_to_replace , replacement_bytes)

Returns

This function returns a single-byte-stream-or-text-item.

Replaces each byte of bytes_to_replace with a byte from replacement_bytes.

The byte chosen from replacement_bytes is the one whose index is the decimal

value of bytes_to_replace. The first byte of replacement_bytes has the index

value of zero. If there is no corresponding byte in replacement_bytes,

CONVERT returns NONE.

Example

CONVERT ( SYMBOL ( 0 ) ,"AB" ) returns A

CONVERT ( SYMBOL ( 1 ) ,"AB" ) returns B

CONVERT ( SYMBOL ( 2 ) ,"AB" ) returns NONE

CONVERT ( ASCII , ATOETable ) converts ASCII text to EBCDIC,

based on values in a table named ATOETable

Uses

Use the

CONVERT function to convert ASCII to EBCDIC or EBCDIC to ASCII

data. See the convert.mms map source file in the

examples\general\portdata directory. One of the maps in convert.mms is

ASCII_TO_EBCDIC, which converts ASCII to EBCDIC; another map,

EBCDIC_TO_ASCII converts EBCDIC to ASCII.

Note ASCII to EBCDIC conversion can be performed automatically by defining the

appropriate data language (ASCII or EBCDIC) for each data item.