Format Name  . . . ________

The Format Name field contains the name of a format definition, which is used to view, browse, or edit a formatted data set. A formatted data set contains records that consist of subfields. The locations and lengths of these subfields are fixed throughout the data set. The formatted data set support in View, Browse, and Edit is particularly useful for data that contains double-byte character (DBCS) data but does not contain shift-out (SO) and shift-in (SI) characters.

The format name can consist of up to eight alphanumeric characters; the first one must be alphabetic.

A format definition can include Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) fields, DBCS fields, and mixed fields. If the specified format includes a mixed field definition, the Mixed Mode field is ignored, even if you select it. See Mixed mode for information. For information about defining formats for formatted data sets, see the topic about the Format Specifications Utility (Option 3.11) in the z/OS ISPF User's Guide Vol II. The Format Specifications utility is provided to support the IBM® 5550 terminal that uses DBCS.

When formatted data is displayed, an attribute character that does not reside in the data set and is not stored in the data set precedes each field. Therefore, the column position on the display is different from the column position in the data set.

The allowable maximum length is decreased two bytes per field definition from the standard View, Browse, and Edit allowable maximum length.