Structure of the PC description file

The PC description file contains four types of information that describe the PC database file:

These information types are described below.

PCFDF
Identifies this file as a description file.
PCFT file type
Identifies the file type of the PC database file.
Indicator File type
1 ASCII
3 BASIC sequential (CSV)
5 Data Interchange Format (DIF)
6 No-conversion file
7 Reserved (DBCS version only)
8 DOS random type 2
9 Binary Interchange Format (BIFF)
10 Tab-delimited text
PCFO
Optional PC time, date, and decimal format entries.
Indicator Time format name Time format
1 HMS hh:mm:ss
2 International Standards Organization (ISO) hh.mm.ss
3 USA standard (USA) hh:mm AM or PM
4 European (EUR) hh.mm.ss
5 Japan Industrial Standard, Christian Era (JIS) hh.mm.ss
6 DDS Format given by AS/400 file attributes
7 DFT Host job default
* Unspecified Host job default
Indicator Time Separator
1 Colon (:)
2 Period (.)
3 Comma (,)
4 Blank ( )
5 Null (N)
6 Default (D) (host)
* Unspecified (host job default)
Indicator Date format name Date format
1 MDY mm/dd/yy
2 DMY dd/mm/yy
3 YMD yy/mm/dd
4 Julian yy/ddd
5 ISO yyyy-mm-dd
6 USA mm/dd/yyyy
7 EUR dd.mm.yyyy
8 JIS yyyy-mm-dd
9 DDS Format given by AS/400 file attribute
10 DFT Host job default
* Unspecified Host job default
Indicator Date Separator
1 Slash (/)
2 Dash (--)
3 Period (.)
4 Comma (,)
5 Blank ( )
6 Null (N)
7 Default (D) (host)
* Unspecified (host job default)
Indicator Decimal Separator
1 Period (.)
2 Comma (,)
3 Default (D) (PC country default)
* Unspecified (PC default used)
PCFL entries
Describes the database fields. Include one PCFL entry for each field in the database. Each entry consists of:
  • Personal Computer Field Length (PCFL)
  • The field name (maximum 10 characters)
  • A number designating the data type
  • The field length in characters
  • PCFL entries
Indicator Data type
1 ASCII
2 ASCII numeric
3 Hexadecimal
4 Binary
5 Zoned
6 Packed
7 BASIC integer
8 BASIC single-precision floating point
9 BASIC double-precision floating point
10 EBCDIC
11 EBCDIC zoned
12 EBCDIC packed