Character sets

The control language uses the extended binary-coded decimal interchange code (EBCDIC) character set.

For convenience in describing the relationship between characters used in the control language and those in the EBCDIC character set, the following control language categories contain the EBCDIC characters shown:

Category	Characters Included
Alphabetic ¹	26 letters (A through Z), $, #, and @
Numeric	10 digits (0-9)
Alphanumeric ^1,2	A through Z, 0 through 9, $, #, @, period (.), and underscore (__)
Special Characters	All other EBCDIC characters
Note: Lowercase letters (a through z) are accepted, but they are translated into the corresponding uppercase letters by the system except when they are included within a quoted character string or a comment, or they are specified for a value on a parameter that has the character (CHAR) or the path name (PNAME) attribute for its TYPE parameter and the mixed case (*MIXED) attribute for its CASE parameter in the command definition. The underscore (__) is an alphanumeric connector that can be used in i5/OS™ CL to connect words or alphanumeric characters to form a name (for example, PAYLIB__01). This use of the underscore might not be valid in other high-level languages.

The first three categories contain the characters that are allowed in quoted and unquoted character strings, in comments, and in CL names, such as in names of commands, labels, keywords, variables, and i5/OS objects. Special characters in the last category can only be used in quoted character strings and comments; they cannot be used in unquoted strings. However, some have special syntactical uses when coded in the proper place in CL commands.