After running a batch IEBGENER job, we viewed the output in the Spool. We expected to see the characters '>' and '<', but instead we saw '>' and '<'. We re-checked our data and it was correct. Why is this happening?
This is actually a consequence of using a web browser. All browsers; Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, translate these symbols because they expect a trailing ';'. The character sequence of an ampersand followed by GT or LT cause the browsers to display the string as the greater than or less than symbol because they are viewed as HTML entities.
When the output file is viewed in the Data File Tools Editor, the correct character strings are displayed. Although it is an effect of a web browser display, we are carrying an open RPI to evaluate what can be done about this in the future. For now, we advise that if the output when viewed in the Spool or the Catalog seems incorrect; please use the Data File Tools Editor to verify the actual data.
Keywords: special characters html tags spool files sysout catalog view 1090535
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