Cobol to .Net

[Mythran]

No Cobol.Net yet? Wha?!?

Anywho, hope someone is familiar enough with Cobol to help me out here. I
have some files written by COBOL applications that contain COMP-3 fields (on
a mainframe) that I ftp up to a network folder for processing in .Net.
Anyone know if it's possible (and how) to convert those COMP-3 (PIC S9(5)V99
COMP-3, for example) to a numeric of type double/single/et cetera?

Hope so, as of now, I'm writing all the fix-it cob programs to convert on
the mainframe before the ftp. If there is a .Net solution, that would be so
much easier.

Thanks,

Mythran

 

[Frank Rizzo]

No Cobol.Net yet? Wha?!?

Anywho, hope someone is familiar enough with Cobol to help me out here. I
have some files written by COBOL applications that contain COMP-3 fields (on
a mainframe) that I ftp up to a network folder for processing in .Net.
Anyone know if it's possible (and how) to convert those COMP-3 (PIC S9(5)V99
COMP-3, for example) to a numeric of type double/single/et cetera?

Hope so, as of now, I'm writing all the fix-it cob programs to convert on
the mainframe before the ftp. If there is a .Net solution, that would be so
much easier.

There is, though I don't really know anything about it.
http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=112

 

[John J. Hughes II]

Never used it and it's been many moons since I used COBOL bu there is Tiny
Cobol on source forge. It might contian some functions for conveting the
COMP-3 fields.

http://tiny-cobol.sourceforge.net/index.php

regards,
John

 

[Brian Henry]

there is COBOL.NET its made by Fujitsu

There is, though I don't really know anything about it.
http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=112

 

[Alejandro Lapeyre]

Here there is a good description of the COMP-3 fields:
http://www.discinterchange.com/TechTalk_Packed_fields_.html

It looks like it is a "packed" decimal representation: every byte contains
two decimal digits. The last byte contains the sign.

An unchecked function to convert a buffer may be this:
(Note that OutlookExpress does not compile this )

function PackedToDecimal(buffer() as byte) as decimal
dim result as decimal = 0
dim i as integer
dim b as byte
for i = 0 to buffer.length - 2
b = buffer(i)
result += (b and (&HF)) + ((b >> 4) * 10)
next
b = buffer(i)
r +=((b >> 4) * 10)
dim s as byte = (b and &HF)
if s = &HD Then
result = -result
end if
return r
end function

You will have to divide the result if it contains decimal digits.


Best Regards,
Alejandro Lapeyre

 

[Cor Ligthert]

Mythran,

As far as I remember me is for you problem that every cobol compiler can use
other formats for Comp-3

It depends on the platform the program is compiled for. By instance the
sample you saw is as far as I remember me typical for IBM EBCDIC platforms.

However although a lot of people are thinking that, is not the only platform
where Cobol is used. There where at least two developments of Cobol used on
the PC's, which are sold by different vendors and have got the names from
those vendors. Because of the fact that the PC does not use EBCDIC you can
understand that the format on that alone because that is not the same as on
an IBM computer.

Therefore I would in your situation investigate what format is made. With
first starting on what platform the Cobol is used.

Not much, however I hope it helps,

Cor

 

[Mythran]

Mythran,

As far as I remember me is for you problem that every cobol compiler can
use other formats for Comp-3

It depends on the platform the program is compiled for. By instance the
sample you saw is as far as I remember me typical for IBM EBCDIC
platforms.

However although a lot of people are thinking that, is not the only
platform where Cobol is used. There where at least two developments of
Cobol used on the PC's, which are sold by different vendors and have got
the names from those vendors. Because of the fact that the PC does not use
EBCDIC you can understand that the format on that alone because that is
not the same as on an IBM computer.

Therefore I would in your situation investigate what format is made. With
first starting on what platform the Cobol is used.

Not much, however I hope it helps,

Cor

Yeah, I understand. We have found a way to convert by sending the file from
the mainframe to the network folder via ftp in binary mode. That gives us a
binary format in ebcdic. Now I can manually uncompress all fields that are
packed and then convert all numeric data and then convert the text (not
including controls characters). This will give us what we need. So, just
gotta create the .Net assemblies for doing this

Thanks for everyone's insights.

Mythran

 

[Cor Ligthert]

Mythran,

I don't if it helps, however in this newsgroup has in my opinion Jay given
the most complete answer on your question now I know it is EBCDIC. I give
you the full thread because there is more interesting in that.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...c7ffac33?q=jay+ebcdic&rnum=1#bdbbc3c3c7ffac33

You never know how it helps,

Cor