VSE mainframe packed fields

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1

I want to know, How can I do to read “VSE mainframe packed fields” from Unix/AIX?

2

You’ll have to elaborate on your environment / scenario a bit more - what tools do you have / want to use from Unix? Where are your packed fields stored on the mainframe? Adabas? or other database / files?

For example, if your data is in Adabas, accessed via Natural on the mainframe, one option is to use EntireX Communicator with an RPC Wrapper (XML, Java, etc) calling a Natural RPC Server. Any packed fields will be translated for you into their numeric equivalents on for your target toolset.

There are other options, but the “best” choice depends on your source and target environments!

3

Hello, I’m trying to read a work file with packed fields, the workfile was exported from VSE 2.3 to AIX 5.2 (Binary) with Connect Direct, when I read a packed field It’s display 2020203?3?3?3?3, Can you help me about how to export a workfile with packed data from VSE to Unix? How can I read this workfile on Natural Unix platform?
Thank You

4

A simple translation routine will not be able to distinguish between packed fields and character fields: it will just translate the whole string as if it were all character fields. As the translation of packed fields requires knowledge of where each field starts and ends, you must have a more complex translation facility available.

If you have any control over the VSE export, then ask that it be available in all display format (unpacked, not packed). (I’m not familiar with the “Connect Direct” software.) Otherwise you have to have a field-aware translation tool (which Natural RPC provides) in order to do what you want.

5

There should be no problems with packed fields in Natural if the file has been exported binary. But if this is the case you may have problems with unpacked fields and you will have problems with alpha fields. The display above shows me:

  1. the file has been exported using ASCII transfer (blank EBCDIC h’40’ → ASCII h’20’, unpacked digits h’F[0-9]’ → h’3[0-9]')
  2. you are not using the correct file layout to read the file, as blanks and unpacked numbers normally do not occur in packed fields (or you did not create the file correctly on the mainframe side)