A character is a member of a defined set of elements that is used for the control or representation of data. You can usually enter a character with a single keystroke. The coded representation of a character is its representation in digital form. A character, the letter A, for example, differs from its coded representation or encoding. Various coded character sets (such as ASCII and EBCDIC) use different encoding for the letter A (decimal values 65 and 193, respectively). This book uses characters to convey meanings and not to imply a specific character code, except where otherwise stated. The exceptions are certain built-in functions that convert between characters and their representations. The functions C2D, C2X, D2C, X2C, and XRANGE have a dependence on the character set in use.

A code page specifies the encoding for each character in a set. REXX symbol and hexadecimal code cross-reference shows the REXX symbols and their hexadecimal values as found in the U.S. Code Page (037).

One result of these differences is that users in countries using code pages other than 037 might have to enter a character different from the one shown in this manual to accomplish the same result.

Another result of character sensitivity in different code pages concerns operating environments. When REXX programs are transferred between different environments, such as PC REXX and TSO/E REXX, adjustments might need to be made as special characters might have different meanings in the different environments.

For information about Double-Byte Character Set characters, see Double-byte character set (DBCS) support.