The convmap.dat file and its tables

The convmap.dat file supplied by OpenEdge, which resides in the OpenEdge/prolang/convmap directory, does not contain character processing tables. Rather, it contains INCLUDE directives, each of which includes a file containing character processing tables. The included files also reside in the OpenEdge/prolang/convmap directory.

The convmap.dat file can contain INCLUDE directives and actual character processing tables (except for word-break tables) in any combination.

A typical included file is arabic.dat, which contains tables for locales that use the Arabic language. The following table lists the contents of arabic.dat.

Table 1. Contents of arabic.dat
Code page	Character processing tables
1256	Character attribute table BASIC case table ARABIC9 collation table BASIC collation table
709	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 709
708	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 708
721	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 721
711	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 711
786	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 786
714	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 714
710	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 710
720	BASIC case table BASIC collation table Character attribute table Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 720

The table shows several characteristics of the arabic.dat file in particular, and of character processing tables in general:

The arabic.dat file contains tables for a variety of code pages

These tables consist of character attribute tables, case tables, collation tables, and code-page conversion tables

Each table applies to a particular code page

Case tables and collation tables have names, while character attribute tables and code-page conversion tables do not

A code page can have only one character attribute table, only one code-page conversion table for a given code-page conversion, only one case table with a particular name, and only one collation table with a particular name.

Multiple code pages might have collation tables or case tables with the same name. For example, code page 710 and code page 720 each have a case table named BASIC, as the table shows.

Every code page does not have every kind of character processing table

In this section: