Hex Passthrough Processing Examples

The table below demonstrates various processing scenarios of hex passthrough blocks embedded within text streams. Select any line of the table for an explanation of the ASCII output.

Table 3-84

The EBCDIC Input

Results in this ASCII output

Fourscore and%%4031323340%%years ago

Fourscore and 123 years ago

Fourscore and%%4031323340&years ago

Fourscore and 123 years ago

Fourscore and@4031323340years ago

Fourscore and 123 years ago

Fourscore and@4031323340^years ago

Fourscore and 123 years ago

%% as Start and End trigger

The example above uses the Arbiter-specific "double-percent" as both start and end trigger characters. The "%%" characters are stripped from the beginning of the hex block, and hex conversion proceeds until the non-hex "%%" characters are encountered at the end of the block. Both "%%" characters are then stripped from the data stream, and processing returns to normal text.Hex 40 is an ASCII [space]. Hex 31, 32, and 33 are ASCII characters '1', '2', and '3', respectively. No further translation is completed.

Start trigger only used

This example demonstrates processing when a start trigger character (@) is encountered at the beginning of the block, but no trigger character is inserted at the end of the block. The start trigger character is stripped from the data stream, and hex conversion proceeds until a non-hex character is encountered. That non-hex character is stripped from the data stream. Without the insertion of a non-hex end trigger character into the block, a valid data character is stripped out of the print data stream.

Hex 40 is an ASCII [space]. Hex 31, 32, and 33 are ASCII characters '1', '2', and '3', respectively. No further translation is completed.

Start and End trigger used

This example demonstrates processing when a start trigger character (@) is encountered at the beginning of the block, and a single non-hex character is inserted into the data stream as the end trigger character. The start trigger character is stripped from the data stream, and hex conversion continues until the non-hex trigger character (^) is encountered. The non-hex end trigger character is stripped from the data stream, and processing returns to normal text.

Hex 40 is an ASCII [space]. Hex 31, 32, and 33 are ASCII characters '1', '2', '3', respectively. No further translation is completed.