• an escape character "%"
• followed by two characters which represent the hexadecimal value of the corresponding ASCII character.

The tool to replace non-aplhanumeric characters with the corresponding escape sequences is subprocedure UrlEscSeq:

D inpString s 32767 varying D outString s 32767 varying * C eval outString=UrlEscSeq(inpString)

A "trim right" indicator can be optionally passed to subprocedure UrlEscSeq.
If it is not passed, or if it is passed and it is *on, the input string is trimmed right before being processed.
If it is passed and it is *off, the input string is not trimmed right (trailing blanks are converted to escape sequences %20):

D inpString s 32767 varying D outString s 32767 varying D trimRightInd s n * C eval trimRightInd=*off C eval outString=UrlEscSeq(inpString:trimRightInd)

You may use CGI program TSTESCSEQ to display the result of converting an input string to an output string containing escaped sequences. In this example, the input string is trimmed right before being processed.

• the input and the ouput fields be defined with varying length not exceeding 32767

 
1. Subprocedure encode
   converts the following special characters to their HTML entity equivalents:

   "	is converted to	"
   &	is converted to	&
   <	is converted to	&lt;
   >	is converted to	&gt;

    
2. Subprocedure encodeBlanks
   converts blanks to non-breaking spaces ( ).
   This procedure is an alternative to use the traditional HTML tags <pre> and </pre>.

   Examples:

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     D VarOutput s 1000 varying ................ C read record C dow not %eof C read record C eval VarOutput = %trimr(recordField) C eval VarOutput = Encode(VarOutput) C eval VarOutput = EncodeBlanks(VarOutput) C callp updhtmlvar('htmlvar':VarOutput) C callp wrtsection('TableRow') C enddo

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     C read record C dow not %eof C read record C callp updHtmlVar('htmlvar':EncodeBlanks( C Encode(%trimr(recordField)))) C callp wrtsection('TableRow') C enddo

    
3. Subprocedure encode2
   allows to translate special characters to their corresponding named entities as documented in a user specified stream file. If not provided, the stream file defaults to /cgidevexthml/encod2arr.txt .

   Required parameter group:

   returned value:  65528 char max,  input string with special characters converted to HTML named entities inputs:  1891 char max,  input string with special characters to be converted to HTML named entities 10i 0,  return code:  0 = successful -1 = file error. Could be any of the following: file not found file not accessible (authority, etc.) file empty file contains no valid records (at run time, a detailed message is sent to the CGIDEBUG debugging file) 256 char max,  (optional)  "entities" stream file, the file that contains the arrays of characters and character entities. If omitted, file /cgidevexthtml/encode2fil.txt is used.

   Note 2. Click here to display stream file /cgidevexthtml/encode2fil.txt .

   Note 3. Click here to run CGI dspencode2. This program uses procedure encode2 to test an "entity" stream file.

   Note 4. To customize the arrays:

   • Never modify, move, or rename the default stream file /cgidevexthtml/encode2fil.txt .
   • Copy the default stream file to an IFS file of your own.
   • Make sure QTMHHTP1 has *RX authority to your file.
   • Modify your file:
     • Record format, one record per line
     • Comment records:
       • positions 1 -2 must be //
     • Data records:
       • Position 1 = the character to be encoded
       • Positions 2 - 9 = the character entity to be substituted for the character. If these positions are blank, the record is ignored.
       • Remainder of record = blanks or comments
   • Use your file in the EntitiesFile parameter.

   Coding examples:

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     D inputString s 1891 varying D outputString s 65528 varying D dftFile s 256 inz('/cgidevexthtml/encode2fil.txt') D rc s 10i 0 inz(0) C eval outputString = encode2(inputString: C rc:dftFile)

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     * Passing a literal C eval result = encode2('':rc) * Passing a varying field. C eval vfield = '' C eval result = encode2(vfield:rc) * Passing from a fixed length field C eval ffield = '' C eval result = encode2(%trimr(ffield):rc) * Passing an expression C eval result = encode2('abc' + %trimr(ffield) + C vfield + 'xyz':rc)