UFMT: Converting an Alphanumeric String to Hexadecimal

Available Operating Systems: AS/400, OpenVMS, OS/390, VM/CMS Available Languages: reporting, Maintain

How to: Convert an Alphanumeric String to Hexadecimal

Example: Converting an Alphanumeric String to Hexadecimal

The UFMT function converts characters in an alphanumeric field to the hexadecimal representation. This function is useful for examining data of unknown format. As long as you know the length of the data, you can examine its content.

Syntax: How to Convert an Alphanumeric String to Hexadecimal

UFMT(string, inlength, outfield)

where:

string

Alphanumeric

Is the alphanumeric string to be converted enclosed in single quotation marks, or the field that contains the string.

inlength

Numeric

Is the length in characters of string.

outfield

Alphanumeric

Is the name of the field that contains the result, or the format of the output value enclosed in single quotation marks. The format of outfield must be alphanumeric and its length must be twice that of inlength.

In Dialogue Manager, you must specify the format. In Maintain, you must specify the name of the field.

Example: Converting an Alphanumeric String to Hexadecimal

UFMT converts each value in JOBCODE to its hexadecimal representation and stores the result in HEXCODE:

DEFINE FILE JOBFILE
HEXCODE/A6 = UFMT(JOBCODE, 3, HEXCODE);
END
TABLE FILE JOBFILE
PRINT JOBCODE HEXCODE
END

The output is:

JOBCODE  HEXCODE
‑‑‑‑‑‑‑  ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
A01      C1F0F1
A02      C1F0F2
A07      C1F0F7
A12      C1F1F2
A14      C1F1F4
A15      C1F1F5
A16      C1F1F6
A17      C1F1F7
B01      C2F0F1
B02      C2F0F2
B03      C2F0F3
B04      C2F0F4
B14      C2F1F4