Several of our products include the ability to convert data from one encoding to another. Typically source and target Coded Character Set Identifiers (CCSIDs) are specified on the command performing the product's function. Our products access the extraordinary national language support (NLS) capabilities of IBM^® i through calls to the iconv() application programming interface (API) which converts data between CCSIDs. Correct CCSID selection is crucial to accurate conversions results. Extensive information to help you select CCSIDs is available in IBM's^®Information Center, search on "Globalization reference information" to locate it.

But before you dig in, we might be able to save you some time. On the vast majority of single language systems, the CCSID that data is encoded in is strongly influenced by the keyboard type (system value QKBDTYPE) used by the system. And in turn this source CCSID strongly influences the useful, usually ASCII, target CCSIDs of interest. For most single language systems you can find the source CCSID directly by running DSPJOB OPTION(*DFNA) and locating the "Default coded character set identifier" value. Once you have a source CCSID the table below offers suggestions on usually useful target CCSIDs to try.

The final test for the accuracy of your CCSID selections is whether or not your data has been properly converted. Check your results.

A special note for PDF conversions. By default, our products' PDF conversions utilize Acrobat's built in fonts. This reduces file size. Acrobat's built in fonts have a limited number of character sets and therefore this default does not always give usable results. If your source data contains characters not found in Acrobat's character sets, the built in fonts will not work for you. If Acrobat's limitation affects you, the way around it is to imbed the fonts containing characters unknown to Acrobat in the generated PDF. Imbedding can be accomplished in either of two ways. One way is to specify PDF font imbedding on the product's command. The other is to specify a PDF/A transform, which automatically imbeds fonts. Roughly speaking, if your source CCSID does not convert to target CCSID 819 (*ISO88591) or is not Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, you must imbed fonts to get useful results. Also note, for Chinese, Japanese, or Korean specify a target CCSID of *UNICODE for best results. In order for our product to imbed fonts, they must be available on the system. For most spooled files, this means that that 57xxSS1 Option 8 "AFP Compatibility Fonts" and 57xxSS1 Option 43 "Additional Fonts" have been loaded on the system. Both are free of charge. When spooled files specify fonts from "IBM Infoprint Fonts (P/N 5648-E77)" collection, this product must be loaded on the system.

For a given source Coded Character Set Identifier (CCSID) this table suggests typically useful, often ASCII, target CCSIDs that may give the results you are looking for. In all cases, check the output for accuracy. Predominately, the target CCSIDs shown are the 4100 and 4105 encoding scheme "associated CCSID" returned by IBM^® i's Coded Data Representation Architecture (CDRA) Get Related Default CCSID (CDRGRDC) API.

If you know useful suggestions that should be included here, please contact us.

IBM^® i's QKBDTYPE (keyboard type) system value often implies a related EBCDIC CCSID. The following table shows this relationship. You can determine your system's setting by running DSPSYSVAL QKBDTYPE.