COBOL file: Select the physical properties

New message definition file wizard, COBOL file option, select the physical properties reference material.

COBOL file

When you are using the option COBOL file in the New message definition file wizard to create a message definition, the following are the list of panels you will be presented with:

Panel properties

Compiler information

Source platform
This property sets the defaults for Codepage, Floating point format, and Byte order.
  • Win32 - the default
  • AIX
  • z/OS
Codepage
This shows the default for what has been set using the Source platform property. This should not be adjusted.
  • ISO8859_1 - the default
Floating point format
This shows the default for what has been set using the Source platform property. This should not be adjusted.
  • IEEE Non-Extended - the default
  • IBM 390 Hexadecimal

Storage layout

Byte order
This shows the default for what has been set using the Source platform property. This should not be adjusted.
  • Little endian - the default
  • Big endian
External decimal sign
This selects the "Sign EBCDIC Custom" check box for elements of "CWF Physical Type" that are set to "External Decimal" and with the "Sign Orientation" set to Leading or Trailing (an embedded sign representation). This would correspond to a COBOL data item such as "USAGE DISPLAY PIC S999 SIGN LEADING" or "USAGE DISPLAY PIC S999 SIGN TRAILING".

You require "EBCDIC Custom" if instance messages in an ASCII code page use EBCDIC-style embedded signs. Otherwise, ASCII or EBCDIC does not select the "Sign EBCDIC Custom" check box for elements and, at runtime, the type of embedded sign is determined from the code page of the instance message.

  • ASCII - the default
  • EBCDIC
  • EBCDIC Custom

Compile options

QUOTE
This affects the character produced by the COBOL keywords QUOTE and QUOTES and is used for setting INITIAL VALUE of a data-item, imported as a default value.
  • DOUBLE - the default
  • SINGLE
TRUNC
Implements the effects of the COBOL compiler option TRUNC(STD|OPT|BIN).

For STD or OPT, COBOL BINARY data-items (including USAGE COMP, COMP-4, or BINARY) have maxInclusive and minInclusive facets created conforming to their PICTURE clause (for example, PIC S999 = min -999, max 999).

For BIN, BINARY data-items behave as if created with USAGE COMP-5. No facets are created, the logical type of each element created (for example, xsd:short) gives the implicit maximum and minimum values that may be handled.

  • STD - the default
  • OPT
  • BIN
NSYMBOL
This is the equivalent of the COBOL compiler option NSYMBOL(NATIONAL|DBCS), which selects whether PIC N data-items are national or dbcs items.
  • DBCS
  • NATIONAL - the default
Create default values from INITIAL VALUEs
If you want to create default values from the initial values, select the Create default values from INITIAL VALUES check box.
Create facets from level 88 VALUE clauses where possible
If you want to create minimum inclusive facets, maximum inclusive facets and enumeration facets from the imported COBOL Level 88 values on the simple type associated with the Schema xsd:element, select the Create facets from level 88 value clauses where possible check box.
This adds a Value Constraints node under Logical properties in the Properties Hierarchy and the values that you specify are subsequently used for validation during runtime.
Note: In cases where a simple type has both minimum and maximum inclusive facets set as well as enumeration facets, the enumeration facets are used in preference to the minimum and maximum inclusive facets.
Create null values for all fields
If your COBOL level 01 data structure is being initialized to a particular character (for example, SPACE, LOW-VALUE, or HIGH_VALUE) in your COBOL application, consider selecting the Create null values for all fields check box.

When the data structure is initialized in this way, the resultant message can give rise to parsing errors because some fields contain a value that is not valid for the data type of the field. Selecting the box enables you to treat any fields that have been initialized in this manner as NULL values and will enable the parsing to succeed.

You specify the initialization character using the Null character control, the default value for which is the SPACE character. Setting these controls will result in all global elements having their Nillable property set, their Custom Wire Format Encoding Null property set to NullLiteralFill, and their Custom Wire Format Encoding Null Value property set to the specified character.

NULL character
Set the Null character in one of the following ways:
  • Select SPACE (the default), NUL, 0x00 or 0xFF from the drop-down list.
  • Enter a character between quotation marks, for example "c" or 'c', where c is any alphanumeric character.
  • Enter a hexadecimal character code in the form 0xYY where YY is a hexadecimal value.
  • Enter a decimal character code in the form YY where YY is a decimal value.
  • Enter a Unicode value in the form U+xxxx where xxxx is a Unicode value specified in hexadecimal

Under normal collation sequence rules, use 0x00 for low-values and 0xFF for high-values.

Padding character for strings
Enter the padding character that is to be used when importing the C header file. Either select from one of the predefined entries in the listed, or specify one by typing it into the field. The value must resolve to a single character. Set this character in one of the following ways:
  • Select NUL, SPACE (the default), or ‘0’ from the drop-down list.
  • Enter a character between quotes, for example "c" or 'c', where c is any alphanumeric character.
  • Enter a hexadecimal character code in the form 0xYY where YY is a hexadecimal value.
  • Enter a decimal character code in the form YY where YY is a decimal value.
  • Enter a Unicode value in the form U+xxxx where xxxx is a Unicode value specified in hexadecimal.
Related tasks
Importing from COBOL copybooks
Related reference
New message definition file wizard
New message definition file wizard: COBOL file