The default alphabet for PL/I is the English alphabet plus the extralingual characters.
There are 26 base alphabetic characters that comprise the English alphabet. They are shown in Table 1 with the equivalent ASCII and EBCDIC values in hexadecimal notation.
| Character | EBCDIC Uppercase Hex Value | EBCDIC Lowercase Hex Value | ASCII Uppercase Hex Value | ASCII Lowercase Hex Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | C1 | 81 | 41 | 61 |
| B | C2 | 82 | 42 | 62 |
| C | C3 | 83 | 43 | 63 |
| D | C4 | 84 | 44 | 64 |
| E | C5 | 85 | 45 | 65 |
| F | C6 | 86 | 46 | 66 |
| G | C7 | 87 | 47 | 67 |
| H | C8 | 88 | 48 | 68 |
| I | C9 | 89 | 49 | 69 |
| J | D1 | 91 | 4A | 6A |
| K | D2 | 92 | 4B | 6B |
| L | D3 | 93 | 4C | 6C |
| M | D4 | 94 | 4D | 6D |
| N | D5 | 95 | 4E | 6E |
| O | D6 | 96 | 4F | 6F |
| P | D7 | 97 | 50 | 70 |
| Q | D8 | 98 | 51 | 71 |
| R | D9 | 99 | 52 | 72 |
| S | E2 | A2 | 53 | 73 |
| T | E3 | A3 | 54 | 74 |
| U | E4 | A4 | 55 | 75 |
| V | E5 | A5 | 56 | 76 |
| W | E6 | A6 | 57 | 77 |
| X | E7 | A7 | 58 | 78 |
| Y | E8 | A8 | 59 | 79 |
| Z | E9 | A9 | 5A | 7A |
The default extralingual characters are the number sign (#), the at sign (@), and the currency sign ($). The hexadecimal values for these characters vary across code pages. You can use the NAMES compiler option to define your own extralingual characters. For more information on defining extralingual characters, refer to the Programming Guide.
An alphanumeric character is either an alphabetic or extralingual character, or a digit.