read cobol data files

[ahmedwaseem2000]

Hi,

I am completely new to c programming and absolutely know nothing about it. However, I work in datastage and it accepts c code hence I have to write a program that would read cobol data files in ebcdic, COMP-3 with hex values stored in it. I would want to read and output(just print) the records in ascii.

using a copy book read the structure and convert the data file in ebcdic to ascii with occurs and occurs depending on clauses.

your help and time would be very much appreciated!!

[Adak]

Welcome to the forum.

I hope you're not expecting someone to start posting up code to suit your needs. The way forums like this work, is you need to show some work, and ask specific questions relative to your problems. IOW's, you need to put some "skin" into the game.

A very small sample of challenging input data would be good to have posted up, when you post up your first question.

[Dino]

Hi,

I am completely new to c programming and absolutely know nothing about it. However, I work in datastage and it accepts c code hence I have to write a program that would read cobol data files in ebcdic, COMP-3 with hex values stored in it. I would want to read and output(just print) the records in ascii.

using a copy book read the structure and convert the data file in ebcdic to ascii with occurs and occurs depending on clauses.

your help and time would be very much appreciated!!

I have a program that does this. I developed it for commercial purposes. I would be happy to license it to you.

[ahmedwaseem2000]

Thank you all for your replies!

Yes, I understand the purpose of the forum I was just not sure where to start from and what all I should be considering as I have no clue at all about this.

[Adak]

Until we see a sample of the data, we can't help much, in any case.

[ahmedwaseem2000]

I wouldnt be able to post the data as it is within clients network. However, here is the cobol copy book sample.

 01 D03453.
          05  D03453-ID  PIC 9(6)V9(3) COMP-3. 
          05  D03453-NAME  PIC X(30).
          05  D03453-XC  PIC  X(1).
          05  D03453-SC  PIC S9(9) COMP-3 OCCURS 0 TO 250 TIMES
                                                                  DEPENDING ON D03453-XC.
                   10 D03453-SC-TAMT  PIC S9(9) COMP-3.
                   10 D03453-SC-TDT    PIC S9(9) COMP-3.

I was able to find a program to convert the ebcdic data to ASCII here is the link Now I would want to learn how to unpack the packed COMP-3 decimals.

[Adak]

If that is a sample of the input, then what would be the output you want, from that input?

A description is good, of course, but an actual sample of correct output will undoubtedly be helpful, if not essential.

Are you confident that the data to be transformed, is similar to this sample, in data type and format? If the actual data is a completely different type of data, using a different format, then an answer for this sample, will be useless.

See what I mean? IMO, all the little details have to be nailed down.

[tabstop]

That's not a sample of the input, that's how the variables are declared in COBOL.

You can see how COMP3 is stored if you google it. You've got the data; you know how it's built; that should be more than enough information to decode it.