IBM Mainframe Forum

I am trying to find a DFSORT solution to sorting arabic data in Right-to-Left mode. For example to SORT a 5 bye arabic name field we do SORT FIELDS=(5,1,CH,A,4,1,CH,etc). Is there an easier way to do this for Arabic data using DFSORT (OR ICETOOL) with LOCALE ALTSEQ etc?

Thanks

Hello,

Even when the file is in order by "right to left" sorting, i suspect that using the fields in code for matching or control breaks also presents challanges.

How are these fields used as keys/indexes in database tables and vsam files?

The arabic data is stored in DB2 but the data that is being sorted is normal text mode data for reporting purposes. We just need to sort the data on the name fields to be passed to another program for reporting.

DFSORT offers LOCALE support - there might be an Arabic LOCALE available that does what you need or there might not. I doubt anyone here knows. I'd suggest you try to find somebody in your shop who is familiar with the situation you're trying to handle. You're probably not the first one to encounter this situation.