Convert EBCDIC to ASCII file

[Gary]

Four records in a mainframe file look like this:

--------------------------
a m
0809100000805F001460008000
0104F000F002F20009C014C20C
--------------------------
| ¬B
0054400000115C001760012000
1688F000F083F20014C017C20C
--------------------------
d ¬
1810500000017F002770169000
0400F000F042F20161C026C20C
--------------------------
& ¬ g
3590500000804C000100090000
4002F000F071F20093C001C20C
--------------------------


How can I convert those records to look like this:

008100941F0000000F0080025FF2000010496C0001048C02000C
010658484F0000000F0018135FC2000011746C0001172C02000C
108410005F0000000F0004127FF2000126717C0012669C02000C
345090025F0000000F0087014FC2000009130C0000910C02000C

 

[Harlan Grove]

Four records in a mainframe file look like this: ....
How can I convert those records to look like this:

....

This is absolutely *NOT* something you should attempt to do in Excel or any
other productivity application.

Under the general admonition "Don't reinvent the wheel!", how are you
receiving these EBCDIC records? If you're downloading them from a mainframe,
then without a doubt your PC-mainframe terminal emulation software includes
EBCDIC to ASCII conversion as a file transfer option. Otherwise it could
never render mainframe terminal screens (sent in EBCDIC) on your PC's screen
(which uses extended ASCII). Use this feature rather than trying to program
this yourself.

If you're trying to read files that have already been downloaded but not
translated, then download and install the GnuWin32 fileutils package,
availabel from

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=23617&package_id=44731

It contains a command named dd (base filename dd.exe) which translates
EBCDIC to ASCII (and the reverse) as well as handling record length
conversions. Use this if you can't use conversion functionality built into
mainframe terminal emulation software.

 

[gary]

Harlan,

I'm using RUMBA 2000 MAINFRAME EDITION VERSION 6.0 U00 to
transfer the file from the mainframe to my PC.

Rumba's "Transfer" screen has "AUTO", "BINARY" and "TEXT"
boxes but none converts the mainframe file to an ASCII
file.

Are you familiar with Rumba? Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Gary

 

[Harlan Grove]

I'm using RUMBA 2000 MAINFRAME EDITION VERSION 6.0 U00 to
transfer the file from the mainframe to my PC.

Rumba's "Transfer" screen has "AUTO", "BINARY" and "TEXT"
boxes but none converts the mainframe file to an ASCII
file.

Are you familiar with Rumba? Am I missing something?

....

http://supportweb.netmanage.com/ts_rumba/solution/pdf/Mframe/3222.pdf

makes it seem Rumba supports automatic EBCDIC-ASCII conversion on TEXT
upload and download. I'd guess it could be a suboption once you choose TEXT.

 

[Dave Peterson]

This looks worse than just plain EBCDIC to ASCII.

That mainframe data looked packed to me. So maybe the OP will have to convert
that, too.

I've always tried to convert packed decimal on the mainframe side using a report
writer language before I transfer to the pc.

(I don't use RUMBA though.)

 

[John Taylor]

Hi,

I know nothing about EBCDIC etc, but I've seen a program (free) that sounds
like it may do what you require.

It's available from the following URL:

http://digilander.libero.it/foxes/SoftwareDownload.htm

A brief summary states:

"EBCDIC to ASCII converter for Window

This little program converts a Packed Decimal - Zoned Format - Cobol Comp-3
file (typically an IBM mainframe file) into an ASCII text file. Freeware.
With ANSI-C source."

HTH

Cheers,

John