For the FD (File Description) Entry, you can use DBCS data items or literals in the VALUE OF clause. The DATA RECORDS clause can refer to data items only. Because the ILE COBOL compiler treats both the VALUE OF clause and the DATA RECORDS clause in the File Section as documentation, neither clause has any effect when you run the program. However, the COBOL compiler checks all literals in the VALUE OF clause to make sure they are valid.
For magnetic tapes, the system can only read DBCS characters from or write DBCS characters to the tape in the EBCDIC format. The system cannot perform tape functions involving a tape in the ASCII format. Define the alphabet-name in the CODE-SET clause as NATIVE or EBCDIC.
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