Re: Convert IBM Zoned-Decimal EBCDIC data to NUMBER format

fbortel_at_home.nl (frank) wrote in <39E9C09F.5A9B5674_at_home.nl>:

>> We're importing IBM mainframe data to an 8i database via the UTL_FILE
>> package. The data is produced on an IBM in COBOL, as zoned-decimal
>> (COBOL PICture S9(10)V999). Because this format of data has letters
>> in the last byte of the number, which denotes the numbers's sign,
>> Oracle doesn't like it.

i suggest using sqlloader which contains a zoned-decimal conversion. i move the file from IBM to the "other" platform in binary transfer mode so that NO ascii conversion occurs. then i specify that sqlloader should do both zoned and ebcdic conversions for me.

note that binary field conversion (computational-3 type) in sqlloader generally assumes that the source and destination machines have the same bit-magnitude ordering (aka little-end vs. big-end).

-- 
dave mausner