I apologize if I am way off base here, but perhaps this code sample I'll paste here could help you. Please don't kill me with down votes, as this is only a possible help, and won't fit in a comment. It came from VBRocks...
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Text.Encoding
'4/20/07 submission includes a line spacing addition when a control character is used:
' The line spacing is calculated off of the 3rd control character.
'
' Also includes the 4/18 modification of determining end of file.
'4/26/07 submission inclues an addition of 6 to the record length when the 4th control
' character is an 8. This is because these records were being truncated.
'Authored by Gary A. Lima, aka. VBRocks
''' <summary>
''' Translates an EBCDIC file to an ASCII file.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Class EBCDIC_to_ASCII_Translator
#Region " Example"
Private Sub Example()
'Set your source file and destination file paths
Dim sSourcePath As String = "c:\Temp\MyEBCDICFile"
Dim sDestinationPath As String = "c:\Temp\TranslatedFile.txt"
Dim trans As New EBCDIC_to_ASCII_Translator()
'If your EBCDIC file uses Control records to determine the length of a record, then this to True
trans.UseControlRecord = True
'If the first record of your EBCDIC file is filler (junk), then set this to True
trans.IgnoreFirstRecord = True
'EBCDIC files are written in block lengths, set your block length (Example: 134, 900, Etc.)
trans.BlockLength = 900
'This method will actually translate your source file and output it to the specified destination file path
trans.TranslateFile(sSourcePath, sDestinationPath)
'Here is a alternate example:
'No Control record is used
'trans.UseControlRecord = False
'Translate the whole file, including the first record
'trans.IgnoreFirstRecord = False
'Set the block length
'trans.BlockLength = 134
'Translate...
'trans.TranslateFile(sSourcePath, sDestinationPath)
'*** Some additional methods that you can use are:
'Trim off leading characters from left side of string (position 0 to...)
'trans.LTrim = 15
'Translate 1 EBCDIC character to an ASCII character
'Dim strASCIIChar as String = trans.TranslateCharacter("S")
'Translate an EBCDIC character array to an ASCII string
'trans.TranslateCharacters(chrEBCDICArray)
'Translates an EBCDIC string to an ASCII string
'Dim strASCII As String = trans.TranslateString("EBCDIC String")
End Sub
#End Region 'Example
'Translate characters from EBCDIC to ASCII
Private ASCIIEncoding As Encoding = Encoding.ASCII
Private EBCDICEncoding As Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(37) 'EBCDIC
'Block Length: Can be fixed (Ex: 134).
Private miBlockLength As Integer = 0
Private mbUseControlRec As Boolean = True 'If set to False, will return exact block length
Private mbIgnoreFirstRecord As Boolean = True 'Will Ignore first record if set to true (First record may be filler)
Private miLTrim As Integer = 0
''' <summary>
''' Translates SourceFile from EBCDIC to ASCII. Writes output to file path specified by DestinationFile parameter.
''' Set the BlockLength Property to designate block size to read.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="SourceFile">Enter the path of the Source File.</param>
''' <param name="DestinationFile">Enter the path of the Destination File.</param>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Sub TranslateFile(ByVal SourceFile As String, ByVal DestinationFile As String)
Dim iRecordLength As Integer 'Stores length of a record, not including the length of the Control Record (if used)
Dim sRecord As String = "" 'Stores the actual record
Dim iLineSpace As Integer = 1 'LineSpace: 1 for Single Space, 2 for Double Space, 3 for Triple Space...
Dim iControlPosSix As Byte() 'Stores the 6th character of a Control Record (used to calculate record length)
Dim iControlRec As Byte() 'Stores the EBCDIC Control Record (First 6 characters of record)
Dim bEOR As Boolean 'End of Record Flag
Dim bBOF As Boolean = True 'Beginning of file
Dim iConsumedChars As Integer = 0 'Stores the number of consumed characters in the current block
Dim bIgnoreRecord As Boolean = mbIgnoreFirstRecord 'Ignores the first record if set.
Dim ControlArray(5) As Char 'Stores Control Record (first 6 bytes)
Dim chrArray As Char() 'Stores characters just after read from file
Dim sr As New StreamReader(SourceFile, EBCDICEncoding)
Dim sw As New StreamWriter(DestinationFile)
'Set the RecordLength to the RecordLength Property (below)
iRecordLength = miBlockLength
'Loop through entire file
Do Until sr.EndOfStream = True
'If using a Control Record, then check record for valid data.
If mbUseControlRec = True Then
'Read the Control Record (first 6 characters of the record)
sr.ReadBlock(ControlArray, 0, 6)
'Update the value of consumed (read) characters
iConsumedChars += ControlArray.Length
'Get the bytes of the Control Record Array
iControlRec = EBCDICEncoding.GetBytes(ControlArray)
'Set the line spacing (position 3 divided by 64)
' (64 decimal = Single Spacing; 128 decimal = Double Spacing)
iLineSpace = iControlRec(2) / 64
'Check the Control record for End of File
'If the Control record has a 8 or 10 in position 1, and a 1 in postion 2, then it is the end of the file
If (iControlRec(0) = 8 OrElse iControlRec(0) = 10) AndAlso _
iControlRec(1) = 1 Then
If bBOF = False Then
Exit Do
Else
'The Beginning of file flag is set to true by default, so when the first
' record is encountered, it is bypassed and the bBOF flag is set to False
bBOF = False
End If 'If bBOF = Fals
End If 'If (iControlRec(0) = 8 OrElse
'Set the default value for the End of Record flag to True
' If the Control Record has all zeros, then it's True, else False
bEOR = True
'If the Control record contains all zeros, bEOR will stay True, else it will be set to False
For i As Integer = 0 To 5
If iControlRec(i) > 0 Then
bEOR = False
Exit For
End If 'If iControlRec(i) > 0
Next 'For i As Integer = 0 To 5
If bEOR = False Then
'Convert EBCDIC character to ASCII
'Multiply the 6th byte by 6 to get record length
' Why multiply by 6? Because it works.
iControlPosSix = EBCDICEncoding.GetBytes(ControlArray(5))
'If the 4th position of the control record is an 8, then add 6
' to the record length to pick up remaining characters.
If iControlRec(3) = 8 Then
iRecordLength = CInt(iControlPosSix(0)) * 6 + 6
Else
iRecordLength = CInt(iControlPosSix(0)) * 6
End If
'Add the length of the record to the Consumed Characters counter
iConsumedChars += iRecordLength
Else
'If the Control Record had all zeros in it, then it is the end of the Block.
'Consume the remainder of the block so we can continue at the beginning of the next block.
ReDim chrArray(miBlockLength - iConsumedChars - 1)
'ReDim chrArray(iRecordLength - iConsumedChars - 1)
'Consume (read) the remaining characters in the block.
' We are not doing anything with them because they are not actual records.
'sr.ReadBlock(chrArray, 0, iRecordLength - iConsumedChars)
sr.ReadBlock(chrArray, 0, miBlockLength - iConsumedChars)
'Reset the Consumed Characters counter
iConsumedChars = 0
'Set the Record Length to 0 so it will not be processed below.
iRecordLength = 0
End If ' If bEOR = False
End If 'If mbUseControlRec = True
If iRecordLength > 0 Then
'Resize our array, dumping previous data. Because Arrays are Zero (0) based, subtract 1 from the Record length.
ReDim chrArray(iRecordLength - 1)
'Read the specfied record length, without the Control Record, because we already consumed (read) it.
sr.ReadBlock(chrArray, 0, iRecordLength)
'Copy Character Array to String Array, Converting in the process, then Join the Array to a string
sRecord = Join(Array.ConvertAll(chrArray, New Converter(Of Char, String)(AddressOf ChrToStr)), "")
'If the record length was 0, then the Join method may return Nothing
If IsNothing(sRecord) = False Then
If bIgnoreRecord = True Then
'Do nothing - bypass record
'Reset flag
bIgnoreRecord = False
Else
'Write the line out, LTrimming the specified number of characters.
If sRecord.Length >= miLTrim Then
sw.WriteLine(sRecord.Remove(0, miLTrim))
Else
sw.WriteLine(sRecord.Remove(0, sRecord.Length))
End If ' If sRecord.Length >= miLTrim
'Write out the number of blank lines specified by the 3rd control character.
For i As Integer = 1 To iLineSpace - 1
sw.WriteLine("")
Next 'For i As Integer = 1 To iLineSpace
End If 'If bIgnoreRecord = True
'Obviously, if we have read more characters from the file than the designated size of the block,
' then subtract the number of characters we have read into the next block from the block size.
If iConsumedChars > miBlockLength Then
'If iConsumedChars > iRecordLength Then
iConsumedChars = iConsumedChars - miBlockLength
'iConsumedChars = iConsumedChars - iRecordLength
End If
End If 'If IsNothing(sRecord) = False
End If 'If iRecordLength > 0
'Allow computer to process (works in a class module, not in a dll)
'Application.DoEvents()
Loop
'Destroy StreamReader (sr)
sr.Close()
sr.Dispose()
'Destroy StreamWriter (sw)
sw.Close()
sw.Dispose()
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' Translates 1 EBCDIC Character (Char) to an ASCII String
''' </summary>
''' <param name="chr"></param>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Private Function ChrToStr(ByVal chr As Char) As String
Dim sReturn As String = ""
'Convert character into byte
Dim EBCDICbyte As Byte() = EBCDICEncoding.GetBytes(chr)
'Convert EBCDIC byte to ASCII byte
Dim ASCIIByte As Byte() = Encoding.Convert(EBCDICEncoding, ASCIIEncoding, EBCDICbyte)
sReturn = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(ASCIIByte)
Return sReturn
End Function
''' <summary>
''' Translates an EBCDIC String to an ASCII String
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sStringToTranslate"></param>
''' <returns>String</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function TranslateString(ByVal sStringToTranslate As String) As String
Dim i As Integer = 0
Dim sReturn As New System.Text.StringBuilder()
'Loop through the string and translate each character
For i = 0 To sStringToTranslate.Length - 1
sReturn.Append(ChrToStr(sStringToTranslate.Substring(i, 1)))
Next
Return sReturn.ToString()
End Function
''' <summary>
''' Translates 1 EBCDIC Character (Char) to an ASCII String
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sCharacterToTranslate"></param>
''' <returns>String</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function TranslateCharacter(ByVal sCharacterToTranslate As Char) As String
Return ChrToStr(sCharacterToTranslate)
End Function
''' <summary>
''' Translates an EBCDIC Character (Char) Array to an ASCII String
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sCharacterArrayToTranslate"></param>
''' <returns>String</returns>
''' <remarks>Remarks</remarks>
Public Function TranslateCharacters(ByVal sCharacterArrayToTranslate As Char()) As String
Dim sReturn As String = ""
'Copy Character Array to String Array, Converting in the process, then Join the Array to a string
sReturn = Join(Array.ConvertAll(sCharacterArrayToTranslate, _
New Converter(Of Char, String)(AddressOf ChrToStr)), "")
Return sReturn
End Function
''' <summary>
''' Block Length must be set. You can set the BlockLength for specific block sizes (Ex: 134).
''' Set UseControlRecord = False for files with specific block sizes (Default is True)
''' </summary>
''' <value>0</value>
''' <returns>Integer</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Property BlockLength() As Integer
Get
Return miBlockLength
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Integer)
miBlockLength = value
End Set
End Property
''' <summary>
''' Determines whether a ControlKey is used to calculate RecordLength of valid data
''' </summary>
''' <value>Default value is True</value>
''' <returns>Boolean</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Property UseControlRecord() As Boolean
Get
Return mbUseControlRec
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Boolean)
mbUseControlRec = value
End Set
End Property
''' <summary>
''' Ignores first record if set (Default is True)
''' </summary>
''' <value>Default is True</value>
''' <returns>Boolean</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Property IgnoreFirstRecord() As Boolean
Get
Return mbIgnoreFirstRecord
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Boolean)
mbIgnoreFirstRecord = value
End Set
End Property
''' <summary>
''' Trims the left side of every string the specfied number of characters. Default is 0.
''' </summary>
''' <value>Default is 0.</value>
''' <returns>Integer</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Property LTrim() As Integer
Get
Return miLTrim
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Integer)
miLTrim = value
End Set
End Property
End Class