Rational Developer for System z
Enterprise PL/I for z/OS, Version 3.8, Language Reference Manual

DBCS identifiers

DBCS identifiers can be composed of single-byte characters in DBCS form, double-byte characters, or a combination of both.

Single-byte identifiers in DBCS form

DBCS identifiers containing only single-byte characters must conform to the normal PL/I naming conventions, including the first-character rule. A DBCS identifier containing single-byte characters expressed as DBCS equivalents is a synonym of the same identifier in SBCS.

Notes:
  1. This book uses the symbol "." (bold period) to represent the first byte of a double-byte character that can also be represented as SBCS.
  2. This book uses "kk" to represent a double-byte character.
  3. This book uses < to represent a shift-out character ('0E'X).
  4. This book uses > to represent a shift-out character ('0F'X).

Example:

  <.I.B.M> = 3;    /* is the same as IBM=3; */

DBCS identifiers containing double-byte characters

The number of bytes used in a DBCS name cannot exceed the value specified as the maximum length of a name specified in the compiler LIMITS option.

SBCS characters expressed in DBCS form within a DBCS identifier are considered to be SBCS, for example:

  A<kk>B
  A<kk.B>
  <.Akk>B            /* are all A<kk>B  (SBCS-DBCS-SBCS) */

Uses for double-byte character identifiers

A DBCS identifier can be used wherever an SBCS identifier is allowed. When DBCS identifiers are used for EXTERNAL names and %INCLUDE file names, you must ensure that the identifiers are acceptable to the operating system, or are made acceptable by one of the following:


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