To Configure the Codeset Translation Environment Variable

Set the MFCODESET variable in your environment to control the codesets being translated.
  1. Start a Visual COBOL command prompt. If you need instructions, see To start a Visual COBOL command prompt.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • To translate between the ASCII character set and the EBCDIC character set for a specific country code, at the command prompt, enter:
      set MFCODESET=nnnn

      where nnnn is either a supported 4-digit country code or the codeset number as detailed in Supported Country Codes, or the codeset number of a customized conversion module.

    • To translate between a specified ASCII character set and a specified EBCDIC character set, at the command prompt, enter:
      set MFCODESET=xxxxyyyy

      where xxxx is a 4-character hexadecimal string representing the SBCDIC CCSID, and yyyy is a 4-character hexadecimal string representing the ASCII CCSID. If the specified CCSID translation table is not currently installed, refer to To install a CCSID Translation Table.

  3. Run your program from within the same environment to use the configured translation.

Example:

To run a program under the CHARSET"EBCDIC" Compiler directive, and have it translate its output between your current ASCII character set and UK English EBCDIC:
set MFCODESET=0285
To run a program under the CHARSET"EBCDIC" Compiler directive, and have it translate its output between the MS-WIN LATIN-1 codeset (CCSID 1252) and the COM EUROPE EBCDIC codeset (CCSID 37):
set MFCODESET=002504E4