_ Mixed Mode

The Mixed Mode field specifies whether you want to view, browse, or edit unformatted mixed data that contains both EBCDIC (single-byte) and DBCS (double-byte) characters. Use a slash to select mixed mode. If your terminal does not support DBCS, the value in this field is ignored.

DBCS strings are enclosed with SO (X'0E') and SI (X'0F') characters in unformatted mixed data. The SO character precedes the DBCS character string and the SI character follows the string.

If you call View, Browse, or Edit from the Library utility (option 3.1) or the Data Set List utility (option 3.4), ISPF assumes that you want to use mixed mode.

If you want to view, browse, or edit DBCS data as EBCDIC data, you must do so in non-mixed mode. You can do this by operating from a terminal that does not support DBCS or by deselecting the Mixed Mode field.

In non-mixed mode, SO and SI characters are not treated as special characters; instead, they are treated as characters that cannot be displayed. Thus, you can view, browse, or edit the data in the conventional way.

You can also view, browse, or edit DBCS data in hexadecimal format, just as you would EBCDIC data. For information about specifying hexadecimal display, see the information about "HEX-Displaying Data in Hexadecimal Format" in the View (Option 1) topic in the z/OS ISPF User's Guide Vol II.

DBCS data that is not valid is not supported. If DBCS fields or DBCS strings in a mixed field contain any bytes with hexadecimal code ranging from X'00' to X'3F', you may get unwanted results.