Purpose:

Each CONVERSION control statement defines exactly one conversion that should be generated in the conversion image. This is called a 'top-level conversion'. Duplicate CONVERSION statements are ignored. It is possible that the image generator uses more than 1 table to reflect the CONVERSION statement. This might be because an MBCS CCSID is involved or a particular conversion table needed was not found. In the case of MBCS involvement, the system implements a composite conversion with a set of sub-level conversions according to its knowledge base. In the case of missing conversion tables, an indirect conversion – using CCSID 1200 as the intermediate CCSID – is generated.

Format:

>>-CONVERSION--from-ccsid--,--to-ccsid--+-------------------------+--;-><
                                        '-,technique-search-order-'      

technique-search-order

   .---------------------.   
   V                     |   
|----technique-character-+--------------------------------------|

technique-character

   .-blank-.   
|--+-------+----------------------------------------------------|
   +-R-----+   
   +-E-----+   
   +-C-----+   
   +-L-----+   
   +-M-----+   
   '-0-9---'   

Parameters:

From-ccsid

The value from-ccsid specifies the FROM-CCSID of the requested conversion. The FROM-CCSID is the CCSID you are converting from.

To-ccsid

The value to-ccsid specifies the TO-CCSID of the requested conversion. The TO-CCSID is the CCSID you are converting to.

Technique-search-order

There may be multiple conversion tables available for converting one CCSID to another. A technique-search-order can be used to specify which table should be used. It consists of up to 8 technique-characters. If you specify more than one technique character, the image generator will try to find a matching table for the leftmost technique–character in the sequence of the technique-search-order. If not found, the search continues with the second one and so on. A blank character terminates the search. Especially for mixed conversion, it is advisable to use more than one technique-character as one of the sub-conversions might exist only in round-trip mode and one only in enforced-subset. In this case, a technique-search-order of 'RE' or 'ER' would be required. Technique-search-order is optional. If not specified, RECLM is used.

To support MBCS conversions, the internal techniques are used instead of the specified technique in the search order. The output of the image generator lists the table or technique that was actually selected. The internal techniques provide the equivalent support as the specified techniques and cannot be specified by customers.

Because you can specify either the default technique search order RECLM or just a blank in the CONVERSION, the field CUNBCPRM_Technique of the parameter area can contain RECLM or a blank.

Technique-character

Possible values for technique-character are:

• R: Roundtrip
• E: Enforced Subset
• C: Customized Subset
• L: Language Environment® Behavior
• M: Modified Language Environment Behavior
• 0 – 9: User-defined conversions

CONVERSION 850,037;      /* technique-search-order omitted, use RECLM   */ 
CONVERSION 850,037,;     /* duplicate, this line will be ignored        */ 
CONVERSION 850,037,R;    /* will use Roundtrip                          */ 
CONVERSION 933,13488,RE; /* will use Roundtrip, then */ 
                         /* Enforced Subset          */