How to convert a literal to Hex value

Question

Reading a hex representation of value in 2 characters, for example 0C from a text file, I need to store the corresponding hex value X'0C' in a program variable as in the following code. I know that COBOL allows to do something like MOVE X'0C' TO somevariable but in my case the literal "0C" is stored in file's record and is not a literal. Thank you.

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
       PROGRAM-ID.    T.
       ENVIRONMENT    DIVISION.
       CONFIGURATION  SECTION.
       SPECIAL-NAMES.
       INPUT-OUTPUT   SECTION.
       FILE-CONTROL.           
           SELECT    FD-DATA-FILE ASSIGN TO   WSIA-FN-FULL 
                     ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL.                 
      *> --------------------------------------------------------------
       DATA           DIVISION.       
       FILE           SECTION.
       FD  FD-DATA-FILE.
       01  FD-DATA-REC.
           05 POS1 PIC XX.
           05 POS2 PIC XX.         
      *>===============================================================
       WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
       01  WS-HEX PIC X.
      *>---------------------------------------------------------------    
       PROCEDURE DIVISION.                    
           OPEN FD-DATA-FILE.
           READ RD-DATA-FILE.
           *> how to accomplish this: The file may contain any 
           *> valid combination representing a hex value (15x15) 
           *> different values. 
           
           *> IF POS1 CONTAINS 'FF'  MOVE X'FF' TO WS-HEX.
           *> IF POS1 CONTAINS '0C'  MOVE X'0C' TO WS-HEX.
           *>....
           
           CLOSE FD-DATA-FILE.
           STOP RUN.

It appears your may be wanting to do something like this question: [How do you convert from Hex to Ascii using different inputs in COBOL](https://stackoverflow.com/q/63526832/9170346). — Rick Smith, May 19 '21 at 02:04

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 19 '21 at 03:53

1

If your compiler supports it, use the HEX-TO-CHAR intrinsic function.

answered May 19 '21 at 03:53

cschneid

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Thank you for pointing this out. I neglected to mention that I am using GNU COBOL which does not have it. I edited the question to add the GNU COBOL tag. – NoChance May 19 '21 at 04:55
Update: GNU-COBOL V4 supports this option. – NoChance Sep 15 '21 at 11:32

How to convert a literal to Hex value

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