Double-byte character set notation

Double-byte character set (DBCS) characters in terms, expressions, character strings, and comments are delimited by shift-out and shift-in characters. In this manual, the shift-out delimiter is represented pictorially by the < character, and the shift-in delimiter is represented pictorially by the > character. The EBCDIC codes for the shift-out and shift-in delimiters are X'0E' and X'0F'.

The following figure summarizes the DBCS notation used throughout this manual.

Characters	Represents
<	Shift-out (SO)
>	Shift-in (SI)
D1D2D3...	Double-byte characters
DaDbDc...	Double-byte characters
.A.B.C.'.&.,	EBCDIC characters in double-byte form: A, B, C, apostrophe, ampersand, and comma. The dots separating the letters represent the hexadecimal value X'42'. A double-byte character that contains the value of an EBCDIC ampersand or apostrophes in either byte is not recognized as a delimiter when enclosed by SO and SI.
eeeeeee	Single-byte (EBCDIC) characters
abcd...	Single-byte (EBCDIC) characters
XXX	Extended continuation indicator for macro-generated statements
+++	Alternative extended continuation indicator for macro-generated statements