General Conversion Information

You should be aware of the following points when defining the input and output files:

• If the chosen file type is indexed, variable-length sequential or variable-length relative:

  The record length information is extracted from the file header and replaces the record length information defined for the input file in the profile file

• If the file type is Mainframe Report format:

  You should set the input record lengths and the output record lengths so that the record length of the mainframe Print Format file is one character longer to hold the carriage control characters

• If a program calling DFCONV is compiled with CHARSET"EBCDIC":

  The Data File Converter cannot interpret the profiles sent to it; the File Converter applies only to DOS and ANSI based programs. To ensure correct processing, use an ANSI-based program to call the Data File Converter.

• If the output file contains non-text data:

  The output file type you specify should not be line sequential. Extra bytes (X'00') are inserted into the ANSI line sequential record whenever a byte contains a value of X'1B' or less, this may result in unnecessarily large files. The extra bytes are include to provide NULL protection to data held in the line sequential file, these bytes would otherwise be interpreted as control characters used in this type of file.