EBCDIC to ASCII

hi all ... im trying to make a ebcdic to ascii conversion function, however something is not
working right. I keep getting characters showing up like ...

Code:

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 ( : / - / )€                -  ( :  %)€                                     
    -  ( :  %, . :  )€                    ( -  : / - / )€              -- (): -
-  , :  -  €      - €                                                  :    €
                                                                      €€€€€€€€€€
€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€µ€€€„€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€
€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

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Just wondering if anyone might have some insight on this ... here is the code ...

Code:

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        const int NUMOFROWS = 40;
        const int NUMOFCOLS = 80;
        StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder();
        private char[] ASCIIHeader = new char[3200];
       
        private byte[] EBCDICtoASCII =
            { 0, 1, 2, 3, 156, 9, 134, 127, 151, 141,
            142, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 157,
            133, 8, 135, 24, 25, 146, 143, 28, 29, 30, 31,
            128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 10, 23, 27, 136, 137, 138,
            139, 140, 5, 6, 7, 144, 145, 22, 147, 148, 149,
            150, 4, 152, 153, 154, 155, 20, 21, 158, 26, 32,
            160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 91, 46,
            60, 40, 43, 33, 38, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174,
            175, 176, 177, 93, 36, 42, 41, 59, 94, 45, 47,
            178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 124, 44, 37,
            95, 62, 63, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193,
            194, 96, 58, 35, 64, 39, 61, 34, 195, 97, 98,
            99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 196, 197, 198, 199,
            200, 201, 202, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113,
            114, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 126, 115, 116,
            117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214,
            215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225,
            226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 123, 65, 66, 67, 68,
            69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237,
            125, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 238,
            239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 92, 159, 83, 84, 85, 86,
            87, 88, 89, 90, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 48,
            49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 250, 251,
            252, 253, 254, 255 };


        private void ConvertEBCtoASCII(char[] ASCIIHeader)
        {
            for (int row = 0; row < NUMOFROWS; row++)
            {
                for (int col = 0; col < NUMOFCOLS; col++)
                {
                    buffer.Append( Convert.ToChar( EBCDICtoASCII[ ASCIIHeader[ (row) * NUMOFCOLS + col ] ] ) );
                }
                buffer.AppendLine();
            }
            outputFileTextBox.Text = Convert.ToString(buffer);
        }

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any help would be great !

:)

Your "translation" table just doesn't look right to me. You may want to review this table.

Also, assuming that you may be pulling data from a midrange (AS400) or mainframe (Sytem 390's) keep in mind that some data may be in Comp3 or packed decimal format which is a binary field that "packs" two digits into each byte using a notation called binary coded decimal. You'll have to "unpack" that data prior to translating.

hi ... thanks for the reply/input bob ... however im quite sure the byte array is done properly, and there is no packed data involved. Im trying to convert a EBCIDIC header that is present on SEGY seismic data, that consists of 3200 bytes. Im not sure if the StringBuilder or the Convert statmemts have anything to do with it ...

Any other input would be dynamite !

Thanks :)

Hopefully, you'll humor me here a little bit and try the following snippet. I believe the Encoding.GetEncoding(37) may resolve your problem

Code:

---

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

public class ConvertFile
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
          string inputFile = "bob.Txt"; // Input SEGY file
        string outputFile = "out.txt"; //  Output ASCII file
        try
        {
            // Create the reader and writer with appropriate encodings.
            using (StreamReader inputReader =
                new StreamReader(inputFile, Encoding.GetEncoding(37)))
            {
                using (StreamWriter outputWriter =
                    new StreamWriter(outputFile))
                {
                    char[] buffer = new char[3200];
                    inputReader.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                    outputWriter.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                }
            }
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Exception during processing: {0}", e.Message);
        }
    }
}

---

WOW ! Thanks for the reply Bob ! i quickly tried that out, and it works awesome ! I'm new to C# and had no idea about Encoding ... thanks again.

:)

well you could try using the encoding class with encoding.convert , eg:

Dim source As Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(37)'///EBCDIC encoding.
Dim path As Encoding = Encoding.ASCII
Dim b As Byte() = path.GetBytes(TextBox1.Text.ToCharArray)
Dim aB As Byte() = Encoding.Convert(source, path, b)

Console.WriteLine(path.GetString(aB))