Character set length requirements

Table 2-14 describes how Japanese characters are represented in supported character sets, and how their lengths are affected.

**Table 2-14: Length requirements in Japanese character sets**
Character set	SBCS or DBCS	Datatype	Length considerations	Example
EUC-JIS	DBCS (hankaku katakana)	character	Each 1-byte hankaku katakana character is preceded by a 1-byte SS2 indicator. As a result, each eucjis hankaku katakana character has a length of 2: the SS2 indicator and the hankaku katakana itself.	A string of 4 hankaku katakana occupies 8 bytes and has a length of 8.
EUC-JIS	DBCS (kanji)	character	Each kanji character is 2 bytes long and has a length of 2. Kanji and single-byte alphabetic characters can be mixed. When converting mixed strings from IBM Kanji to workstation kanji, double the length to be safe.	A string of 4 kanji occupies 8 bytes and has a length of 8.
Shift-JIS	SBCS (hankaku katakana)	character	Each hankaku katakana character is 1 byte long and has a length of 1. Shift-JIS hankaku katakana does not use SS2 indicators.	A string of 4 hankaku katakana occupies 4 bytes and has a length of 4.
Shift-JIS	DBCS (kanji)	character	Each kanji character is 2 bytes long and has a length of 2. Kanji and single-byte alphabetic characters can be mixed. When converting mixed strings from IBM Kanji to workstation kanji, double the length to be safe.	A string of 4 kanji occupies 8 bytes and has a length of 8.
IBM Kanji	DBCS	character	Each kanji character is 2 bytes long and has a length of 2. Each kanji string is preceded by a Shift Out indicator and followed by a Shift In indicator, adding two to the length of each kanji string. Kanji and single-byte alphabetic characters can be mixed. When converting mixed strings from IBM Kanji to workstation kanji, double the length to be safe.	A string of 4 kanji occupies 10 bytes and has a length of 10. (8 bytes for the data and 2 bytes for the SO/SI codes)
IBM Kanji kanji	DBCS	graphic	Each kanji character is a double-byte character and has a length of 1. There are no SO/SI indicators with graphic data.	A string of 4 kanji occupies 8 bytes and has a length of 4.
IBM Kanji hankaku katakana	SBCS	character	Each hankaku katakana character is 1 byte long and has a length of 1. IBM Kanji hankaku katakana does not use SS2 indicators.	A string of 4 hankaku katakana occupies 4 bytes and has a length of 4.