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Status Submitted
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on May 15, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

xml-sax -- invalid characters converted to substitution character

Now and then I experience that XML-SAX in RPG throws an exception RNX0351 - The XML parser detected error code 6. This is caused by the situation that an UTF-8 character can not be converted to an EBCDIC character.

It would be nice if it was possible to catch this error and handle it in my program.
In the RPG manual it is mentioned that in case a character can not be converted it is replaced by a substitution character.
The substitution character for alphanumeric data is x'3F'. The substitution character for Graphic data is x'FEFE'.

In the options part of the %XML() a new option "allowsubstitution" could be defined so backwards compability is kept.


Then new events could be implemented to reflect that a substitution has happened.
For example *XML_CHARS_SUBST
This might not be necessary - you can scan for the character x'3F' but it causes some overhead.

But the options could even be extended with another option "substitutecharacter".
For example
substitutecharacter=space ( replace the invalid character with a space / blank)
substitutecharacter=default ( that is x'3F' for ebcdic )

This might also be usefull for the XML-INTO command.


Idea priority High
  • Admin
    Carmelita Ruvalcaba
    Jun 24, 2025

    The CAAC has reviewed this IBM Idea and recommends that IBM view this as a “nice to have” low priority feature.

    Anything that IBM can do, to make it easier for the next generation to deal with EBCDIC would be gratefully received by the community.

    Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual IBM Ideas on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your Idea.

    For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

    Carmelita Ruvalcaba - CAAC Program Manager


    Reply

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