Is there an EBCDIC_STR function on IBMi

Question

I'm running into issue with character encoding and I found the functions EBCDIC_STR , ASCII_STR in Db2 for z/OS. Are there similar function for Db2 for IBM i?

Answer 1

Starting with v7.2, there is a similar function in DB2 for i, it is CHAR . It is not an exact replacement though. While EBCDIC_STR returns a string in the system EBCDIC CCSID, and provides a UTF-16 encoding for unknown characters, CHAR takes a string and converts it to a provided CCSID. CHAR has no defined behavior for characters that cannot be converted to the new CCSID.

Answer 2

I believe you will have to use a CAST specification in your SQL statement, specifying in it the desired CCSID, rather than using a built-in function.

This documentation page gives the syntax of a CAST specification, but it does not have a precisely relevant example. The DB2 for zOS CAST page gives an example that should be the same on the i Series:

 CAST(MYDATA AS CHAR(10) CCSID 367)