GRAPHIC EXTERNAL

If the DBCS field is surrounded by shift-in and shift-out characters, then use GRAPHIC EXTERNAL. This is identical to GRAPHIC, except that the first and last characters (the shift-in and shift-out) are not loaded.

The syntax for the GRAPHIC EXTERNAL data type is:

GRAPHIC indicates that the data is double-byte characters. EXTERNAL indicates that the first and last characters are ignored. The graphic_char_length value specifies the length in DBCS (see "GRAPHIC").

For example, let [ ] represent shift-in and shift-out characters, and let # represent any double-byte character.

To describe ####, use POSITION(1:4) GRAPHIC or POSITION(1) GRAPHIC(2).

To describe [####], use POSITION(1:6) GRAPHIC EXTERNAL or POSITION(1) GRAPHIC EXTERNAL(2).