In the following section, instead of talking about files or library elements, we refer only to files.
When reading in a file, EDT evaluates the character set of the catalog entry.
If the work file into which the file is to be read does not as yet have any character set (*NONE), the file's character set is defined for this work file and the file is read in. If the file has the character set *NONE, EDF03IRV is set.
If the work file already has a character set then the content of the file is converted from the catalog entry's into the work file's character set when it is read in. The work file does not have to be empty. It is therefore possible to read files with different character sets into a work file. The data is then present in the work file's character set. If the file contains characters which are not supported by the work file's character set then the file is not read in unless a substitute character has been defined. This is then used. If the file contains an invalid byte sequence (possible in Unicode character sets) then the file is not read in.
If the character set entered in the catalog is not supported then the file is also not read in.
If the file has been opened for real processing (see section “File processing”), then the work file must be empty and, in order to be defined, its character set must be the same as the file's character set or *NONE.
Example
To set the character set UTFE for work file 0, read in the file ADDRESSES with CCS=*NONE.
Since the work file has the character set UTFE any characters from the Unicode character set can be entered in it provided that the terminal supports Unicode. This can be achieved as here, for example, by means of statements.
However, it can also be achieved by entering the data directly. Here UE has been replaced by Ü and πλάτων etc has been inserted in line 6.
