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ebcdic-overpunch-decoding

separate

Reference for the EBCDIC "overpunch" / zoned-decimal sign convention where the units position of a numeric field is replaced with a letter that encodes both a digit and a sign. Useful when reading mainframe-style fixed-length tapes whose amount fields appear as digits followed by a letter (e.g. "0000000000123D" or "0000000000045M").

When to use

• Decoding EBCDIC overpunch characters
• Interpreting zoned-decimal sign conventions
• Reading mainframe-style fixed-length tapes
• Converting ASCII-converted tape amount fields
• Mapping overpunch letters to signs and digits

When not to use

• Native EBCDIC zoned data processing
• COBOL SIGN IS TRAILING SEPARATE clause implementation

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