AS/400 ODBC Translation

[WendellB]

We are trying to import data from an AS/400 running Version 9.0 of the
iSeries ODBC driver and are getting text fields returned in what appears to
be EBCDIC codes rather than ANSI/ASCII. However numeric fields are returned
in their proper format. Do we have to implement a conversion routine after
the tables are linked or imported? There is some suggestion that the driver
will do it for you, but it isn't at all clear how the driver should be
configured to do that - if indeed it does. Some IBM documentation suggests
it was removed several versions ago.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

 

[Rick Brandt]

We are trying to import data from an AS/400 running Version 9.0 of the
iSeries ODBC driver and are getting text fields returned in what appears to
be EBCDIC codes rather than ANSI/ASCII. However numeric fields are returned
in their proper format. Do we have to implement a conversion routine after
the tables are linked or imported? There is some suggestion that the driver
will do it for you, but it isn't at all clear how the driver should be
configured to do that - if indeed it does. Some IBM documentation suggests
it was removed several versions ago.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

There is a setting for that kind of stuff in the ODBC driver setup, but I have
never had to do anything but take the defaults.

Version 9 is pretty old. What version of OS400 are you running? Our company
has been using 10.something for at least a few years now. Admittedly though the
only problems I have ever encountered that were version specific on the driver
had to do with writing back to the system, never just reading.

Are you linking to the AS400 or using a passthrough query? Often when a link
has problems a passthrough will work just fine.

 

[WendellB]

Thanks Rick. The AS400 in this case is some 20 years old and one about to be
replaced. Can the passthrough query be a simple SELECT * statement, or do we
need to build something compatible with the AS400 query syntax?

 

[WendellB]

Never mind the previous message - the same general passthrough syntax works
just fine, and I am now seeing the data as ASCII. Very strange this business
of conversion from EBCDIC to ASCII. Thanks again.