When a Hex text constant in the format X"7F" is specified, the Hex text constant is treated as raw bytes. The binary representation of the Hex string constant is never modified prior to any string operation or comparison.
When a Hex text constant is used in a comparison with a non-Hex value, the collating sequence of the non-Hex value applies. Hex text constants can also be used as field separators and field enclosing characters. In these cases, the bytes represented by the Hex text are expected to constitute valid characters of the source or target stream encoding.
Concat
All text fields are associated with an encoding internally. When concatenating a Hex tex constant with a text field, the resulting data is encoded in the same encoding as the text field encoding. The Hex binary representation, however, does not change. The concatenation of two Hex text constants result in a Hex text constant that is not not encoded.
An encoded field comparison with a Hex text constant collates according to the sequence order of the encoded field’s encoding.
Field Separator
Field separators in Hex text constant notation are treated as binary representations of the source or target encoding. Single byte and multibyte field separators are supported.
Enclosing characters in Hex text constant notation are treated as binary representations of the source or target encoding. Although multi-byte single characters are supported, multi-byte multi characters are not supported; for example, multi-character enclosing characters are not supported.
Padbyte
Padbyte can be specified as a single byte character or as a single byte in Hex notation:
- Single byte characters are specified as ASCII and can be converted to the targer field or record encoding.
- Single bytes in Hex notation are never converted.
Typcially, Hex text constant arguments are processed as raw bytes, which eliminates conversions and thereby optimizes performance.