HLASM: V1R6 Language Ref

DC instruction—Character constantno type extension is provided, then the constant may be changed, depending onthe value of the TRANSLATE option. If the type extension of “E” is provided, thenthe representation is also EBCDIC, but it cannot be changed by the TRANSLATEoption. For information about type extension “A” see “ASCII data in characterconstants” on page 143, and for information about type extension “U” see“Unicode UTF-16 data from character constants” on page 143.|||Any of the 256 characters from the EBCDIC character set may be designated in acharacter constant. Each character specified in the nominal value subfield isassembled into one byte (see ▌1▐ in Table 23). For more information, see thediscussion about the 82 invariant characters in “Character self-defining term” onpage 34.A null nominal value is permitted if a length is specified. For example:DCCL3’’is assembled as three EBCDIC spaces with object code X'404040', whereasDCCAL3’’is assembled as three ASCII spaces with object code X'202020'.Multiple nominal values are not allowed because a comma in the nominal value isconsidered a valid character (see ▌2▐ in Table 23) and is assembled into its binary(EBCDIC) representation (see Appendix D, “Standard character set code table,” onpage 417). For example:DCC’A,B’is assembled as A,B with object code X'C16BC2'.Give special consideration to representing single quotation marks and ampersandsas characters. Each single quotation mark or ampersand you want as a character inthe constant must be represented by a pair of single quotation marks orampersands. Each pair of single quotation marks is assembled as one singlequotation mark, and each pair of ampersands is assembled as one ampersand (see▌3▐ in Table 23).|||Table 23. Character constantsSubfield Value Example Result1. Duplication factor Allowed2. Type C3. Type Extension UAE4. Program type Allowed5. Modifiers Implicitlength: (length modifiernot present)Alignment:Evaluate as an evennumber, if TypeExtension of U isspecifiedByteU DC CU’UNICODE’A DC CA’ASCII’E DC CE’EBCDIC’L'U = 14L'A = 5L'E = 6C DC C’LENGTH’ L'C = 6 ▌1▐Chapter 5. Assembler instruction statements 141