The PICTURE Clause (DBCS)

General Rules
  1. There are two additional categories of data that can be described with a PICTURE clause: NCHAR and NCHAR-EDITED. Both of these categories can be described as USAGE IS NCHAR or USAGE IS JAPANESE.
  2. Rules for NCHAR Data
  3. Its PICTURE character-string can contain only the symbol "N".
  4. Its contents can be any characters in the DBCS character set.
  5. Rules for NCHAR-EDITED Data
  6. Its PICTURE character string can contain any combination of the symbols "N", "B", "/" and "0". Refer to the section The PICTURE Clause for edited-data rules.
Symbols Used

The functions of these symbols are as follows:

Symbol Representation Example NCHAR Japanese Values
Shift-JIS EUC
N Each "N" represents a character position which can contain only a DBCS character or a DBCS space.    
B Each "B" represents a character position into which the DBCS space character is inserted. x"8140" x"A1A1"
/ Each "/" represents a character position into which the DBCS forward slash is inserted. x"851E" x"A1BF"
0 Each "0" represents a character position into which the DBCS Zero is inserted. x"824F" x"A3B0"

Footnotes:

18.

Note that each "N", "B", "/", "0" represents a single double-byte character position.

Editing Rules

The type of editing that can be performed on an item depends on the category to which the item belongs. The table Editing Types for Data Categories in the section The PICTURE Clause is extended with the information shown in Table 1 below:

Category Type of Editing
NCHAR None
NCHAR-EDITED Simple insertion "B", "/", "0" only
Table 1: Editing Types for Data Categories
Fixed Insertion Editing

When used in an SBCS item, "B" (space) represents an SBCS space. When used in an NCHAR item it represents a DBCS space.

When used in an SBCS item, "/" (forward slash) represents an SBCS forward slash. When used in an NCHAR item it represents a DBCS forward slash.

When used in an SBCS item, "0" (zero) represents an SBCS zero. When used in an NCHAR item it represents a DBCS zero.