Transferring Data from BIFF Files

If an error cell is found during data transfer from a BIFF file to the iSeries, eServer™ i5, or System i5®, either of the following things can occur depending on the data type of the file:

If the system field is a character (EBCDIC) field, the error cell containing untranslatable characters (hexadecimal zeros) is transferred to the system. A message indicating how many bytes of untranslatable data were transferred is displayed.
If the system field is a hexadecimal, zoned decimal, packed decimal, or binary field, an error message indicating that the data in this cell is not valid and thus has not been transferred to the system is displayed.

When you transfer data from a system file to a BIFF file, the first record contains field names, which can be treated as column headers.

To return a BIFF file to the system, the first line must contain these field names (as defined in the system) or data. If the first line does not contain field names, the file is regarded as containing data only.

When a file is sent to the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5, cell information (such as the character size and font information) is ignored. This means that cell information is lost, even if the contents of a BIFF file that have been sent to the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5 are retransmitted to a workstation.

When you transfer data from a BIFF file to an iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5 file, the data is converted as follows:

ASCII character cell data is converted to EBCDIC character data or hexadecimal data; 1-byte ASCII data is converted to 1-byte EBCDIC data.
ASCII numeric cell data is converted to a binary number, or a zoned or packed decimal number, depending on the data type specified in the system.

When you transfer data from a BIFF file to the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5, the following specific processing is performed:

When you transfer data to a BIFF file, the first record contains the names of the fields to be transferred, which can be treated as column headers. To return a BIFF file to the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5, the first line must contain the same field names (as defined in the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5) or data. If the first line or the first set does not contain a character field that exactly matches the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5 field, the file is treated as being a file with no column headers, and only data is processed.
When you transfer a BIFF file to the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5, header information is not used.
To ensure correct transfer of a BIFF file to the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5, the file format must be valid (lines and columns). Data for each set or line must correspond to one record in the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5 file.