Channel Codes are used in the Linedata printing to control the appearance of the printed data on the page.

It is used to control the spacing of the data on the page. Especially when generating Form-based output this type of line control is still very often used.

Today Channel codes are mostly used in legacy data and area utilized to group data, as it can work as a delimiter for variable sized groups. Transactions would be typically grouped this way.

Channel Codes are the very first byte in a line. Please note that on mainframes the dataset structure can determine such channel codes already (VBM blocked).

 

Machine Code Control Characters Machine Code Control Characters ANSI Control Characters
Action Action after Printing Action only (immediately) Action before Printing
Print (no space) 01 4E(+)
Space 1 line 09 0B 40( )
Space 2 lines 11 13 40(0)
Space 3 lines 19 1B 60(-)
Skip to Channel 1 89 8B F1(1)
Skip to Channel 2 91 93 F2(2)
Skip to Channel 3 99 9B F3(3)
Skip to Channel 4 A1 A3 F4(4)
Skip to Channel 5 A9 AB F5(5)
Skip to Channel 6 B1 B3 F6(6)
Skip to Channel 7 B9 BB F7(7)
Skip to Channel 8 C1 C3 F8(8)
Skip to Channel 9 C9 CB F9(9)
Skip to Channel 10 D1 D3 C1(A)
Skip to Channel 11 D9 DB C2(B)
Skip to Channel 12 E1 E3 C3(C)