Character Sets and Collating Sequences

The Character Set Encoding and Collating Sequence table, below, lists the ASCII and EBCDIC character sets and collating sequences, and show, the hexadecimal equivalent of the characters. For each ASCII and EBCDIC character, a further column contains an X if the character is not available as part of the recognized COBOL character set.

See your COBOL system documentation for details of the ALPHASTART and SYMBSTART Compiler directives, which set the number from which the compiler counts positions in the collating sequence.

The EBCDIC column shows the IBM standard U.S. bit pattern assignments. Some characters have a different bit pattern in different languages, and these are boxed within the table.

Table 1. Character Set Encoding and Collating Sequence
	ASCII		EBCDIC
Hex	Character	COBOL	Character	COBOL
00	NUL	X	NUL	X
01	SOH	X	SOH	X
02	STX	X	STX	X
03	ETX	X	ETX	X
04	EOT	X	SEL	X
05	ENQ	X	HT	X
06	ACK	X	RNL	X
07	BEL	X	DEL	X
08	BS	X	GE	X
09	HT	X	SPS	X
0A	LF	X	RPT	X
0B	VT	X	VT	X
0C	FF	X	FF	X
0D	CR	X	CR	X
0E	SO	X	SO	X
0F	SI	X	SI	X
10	DLE	X	DLE	X
11	DCI	X	DC1	X
12	DC2	X	DC2	X
13	DC3	X	DC3	X
14	DC4	X	RES/ENP	X
15	NAK	X	NL	X
16	SYN	X	BS	X
17	ETB	X	POC	X
18	CAN	X	CAN	X
19	EM	X	EM	X
1A	SUB	X	UBS	X
1B	ESC	X	CU1	X
1C	FS	X	IFS	X
1D	GS	X	IGS	X
1E	RS	X	IRS	X
1F	US	X	ITB/IUS	X
20	SPACE		DS	X
21	!	X	SOS	X
22	"		FS	X
23	#	X	WUS	X
24	$		BYP/INP	X
25	%	X	LF	X
26	&		ETB	X
27	'		ESC	X
28	(		SA	X
29	)		SFE	X
2A	*		SM/SW	X
2B	+		CSP	X
2C	,		MFA	X
2D	–		ENQ	X
2E	.		ACK	X
2F	/		BEL	X
30	0			X
31	1			X
32	2		SYN	X
33	3		IR	X
34	4		PP	X
35	5		TRN	X
36	6		NBS	X
37	7		EOT	X
38	8		SBS	X
39	9		IT	X
3A	:		RFF	X
3B	;		CU3	X
3C	<		DC4	X
3D	=		NAK	X
3E	>			X
3F	?	X	SUB	X
40	@	X	SP	X
41	A		RSP	X
42	B			X
43	C			X
44	D			X
45	E			X
46	F			X
47	G			X
48	H			X
49	I			X
4A	J		c (cent)	X
4B	K		.	X
4C	L		<	X
4D	M		(	X
4E	N		+	X
4F	O		\|	X
50	P		&
51	Q			X
52	R			X
53	S			X
54	T			X
55	U			X
56	V			X
57	W			X
58	X			X
59	Y			X
5A	Z		!	X
5B		X	$
5C		X	*
5D		X	)
5E		X	;
5F	_		¬	X
60		X	–
61	a		/
62	b			X
63	c			X
64	d			X
65	e			X
66	f			X
67	g			X
68	h			X
69	i			X
6A	j		\|	X
6B	k		,
6C	l		%	X
6D	m		_
6E	n		>
6F	o		?	X
70	p		.	X
71	q			X
72	r			X
73	s			X
74	t			X
75	u			X
76	v			X
77	w			X
78	x			X
79	y		`	X
7A	z		:
7B		X	#	X
7C		X	@	X
7D		X	'
7E		X	=
7F	DEL	X	"
80				X
81			a
82			b
83			c
84			d
85			e
86			f
87			g
88			h
89			i
8A				X
8B				X
8C				X
8D				X
8E				X
8F				X
90				X
91			j
92			k
93			l
94			m
95			n
96			o
97			p
98			q
99			r
9A				X
9B				X
9C				X
9D				X
9E				X
9F				X
A0				X
A1			~	X
A2			s
A3			t
A4			u
A5			v
A6			w
A7			x
A8			y
A9			z
AA				X
AB				X
AC				X
AD				X
AE				X
AF				X
B0				X
B1				X
B2				X
B3				X
B4				X
B5				X
B6				X
B7				X
B8				X
B9				X
BA				X
BB				X
BC				X
BD				X
BE				X
BF				X
C0			(	X
C1			A
C2			B
C3			C
C4			D
C5			E
C6			F
C7			G
C8			H
C9			I
CA			SHY	X
CB				X
CC				X
CD				X
CE				X
CF				X
D0			)	X
D1			J
D2			K
D3			L
D4			M
D5			N
D6			O
D7			P
D8			Q
D9			R
DA				X
DB				X
DC				X
DD				X
DE				X
DF				X
E0			\	X
E1			NSP	X
E2			S
E3			T
E4			U
E5			V
E6			W
E7			X
E8			Y
E9			Z
EA				X
EB				X
EC				X
ED				X
EE				X
EF				X
F0			0
F1			1
F2			2
F3			3
F4			4
F5			5
F6			6
F7			7
F8			8
F9			9
FA			\|	X
FB				X
FC				X
FD				X
FE				X
FF			E0	X