Applications that use channels to exchange data use a simple data conversion model. Frequently, no conversion is required and, when it is, a single programming instruction can be used to tell CICS® to handle it automatically.
In contrast, the data in channel containers is converted under the control of the application programmer, using API commands.
All the data in a container is converted as if it were a single character string. For single-byte character set (SBCS) code pages, a structure consisting of several character fields is equivalent to a single-byte character string. However, for double-byte character set (DBCS) code pages this is not the case. If you use DBCS code pages, to ensure that data conversion works correctly you must put each character string into a separate container.
EXEC CICS PUT CONTAINER [CHANNEL] [DATATYPE] [FROMCCSID]
EXEC CICS GET CONTAINER [CHANNEL] [INTOCCSID]
For detailed information about the PUT CONTAINER (CHANNEL) command, see PUT CONTAINER (CHANNEL). For detailed information about the GET CONTAINER (CHANNEL) command, see GET CONTAINER (CHANNEL).