EBCDICn

EBCDICn refers to a family of character encoding standards developed by IBM. EBCDIC stands for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. It is a superset of the older BCDIC (Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) and was designed to support a wider range of characters, including lowercase letters and punctuation. EBCDIC is a fixed-width encoding, meaning each character occupies the same number of bits, typically 8 bits or one byte.

There are several variations of EBCDIC, each with slight differences in character representation, to accommodate different languages and regional requirements. These variations include EBCDIC-CP037, EBCDIC-CP500, and EBCDIC-CP1047, among others. The "CP" in these names stands for Code Page. These code pages define the specific mapping of byte values to characters.

EBCDIC was widely used on IBM mainframe and midrange computer systems for many years. While still present in legacy systems, its use has declined with the widespread adoption of ASCII and its successor, UTF-8, particularly in open systems and the internet. The primary difference between EBCDIC and ASCII lies in the arrangement of characters and the presence of control characters. This difference can lead to compatibility issues when transferring data between systems using different encodings. Understanding EBCDIC is important when working with older IBM systems or data originating from them.