DBCS Data in Character Fields

1. In OPM RPG/400, position 57 (Transparency Check) of the control specification allows you to specify whether the RPG/400 compiler should scan character literals and constants for DBCS characters. If you specify that the compiler should scan for transparent literals, and if a character literal that starts with an apostrophe followed by a shift-out fails the transparency check, the literal is reparsed as a literal that is not transparent.

   In ILE RPG, there is no option on the control specification to specify whether the compiler should perform transparency check on character literals. If a character literal contains a shift-out control character, regardless of the position of the shift-out character within the character literal, the shift-out character signifies the beginning of DBCS data. The compiler will check for the following:

   • A matching shift-in for each shift-out (that is, the shift-out and shift-in control characters should be balanced)
   • An even number (minimally two) between the shift-in and the shift-out
   • The absence of an embedded shift-out in the DBCS data

   If the above conditions are not met, the compiler will issue a diagnostic message, and the literal will not be reparsed. As a result, if there are character literals in your OPM RPG programs that fail the transparency check performed by the OPM RPG compiler, such programs will get compilation errors in ILE RPG.

2. In OPM RPG/400, if there are two consecutive apostrophes enclosed within shift-out and shift-in control characters inside a character literal, the two consecutive apostrophes are considered as one single apostrophe if the character literal is not a transparent literal. The character literal will not be a transparent literal if:
   • The character literal does not start with an apostrophe followed by a shift-out
   • The character literal fails the transparency check performed by the compiler
   • The user has not specified that a transparency check should be performed by the compiler

   In ILE RPG, if there are two consecutive apostrophes enclosed within shift-out and shift-in control characters inside a character literal, the apostrophes will not be considered as a single apostrophe. A pair of apostrophes inside a character literal will only be considered as a single apostrophe if they are not enclosed within shift-out and shift-in control characters.

3. In ILE RPG, if you want to avoid the checking of literals for shift-out characters (that is, you do not want a shift-out character to be interpreted as such), then you should specify the entire literal as a hexadecimal literal. For example, if you have a literal 'AoB' where 'o' represents a shift-out control character, you should code this literal as X'C10EC2'.