Binary Format
Binary format means that the sign (positive or negative) is in the leftmost bit of the field and the numeric value is in the remaining bits of the field. Positive numbers have a zero in the sign bit; negative numbers have a one in the sign bit and are in two’s complement form.
A binary format is a format in which file information is stored in the form of ones and zeros, or in some other binary (two-state) sequence. This type of format is often used for executable files and numeric information in computer programming and memory.
Processing of a Program-Described Binary Input Field
Every input field read in binary format is assigned a field length (number of digits) by the compiler. A length of 4 is assigned to a 2-byte binary field; a length of 9 is assigned to a 4-byte binary field, if the field is not defined elsewhere in the program. Because of these length restrictions, the highest decimal value that can be assigned to a 2-byte binary field is 9999 and the highest decimal value that can be assigned to a 4-byte binary field is 999 999 999. In general, a binary field of n digits can have a maximum value of n 9s. This discussion assumes zero decimal positions.
Because a 2-byte field in binary format is converted by the compiler to a decimal field with 1 to 4 digits, the input value may be too large. If it is, the leftmost digit of the number is dropped. For example, if a four digit binary input field has a binary value of hexadecimal 6000, the compiler converts this to 24 576 in decimal.
The 2 is dropped and the result is 4576. Similarly, the input value may be too large for a 4-byte field in binary format. If the binary fields have zero (0) decimal positions, then you can avoid this conversion problem by defining integer fields instead of binary fields.
Note:
Binary input fields cannot be defined as match or control fields.
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