Dave's Hex page
Everything you wanted to know about Hex
*But were afraid to ask...

© Copyright 2000-2004+ by David Alcock

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Base 16 Hexadeximal representation

This web page assumes that you are familiar with the Base 16 hexadecimal represenation. In case you aren't or want to brush up, here are some links to look at:

HEX dumps, Hex editors and the like

A hex dump is one of a programmer's best friends. Here are some information resources based on platform for viewing and getting information in hexadecimal format:

OS/390 (MVS):

How to get a hex dump and hex output on MVS using tools:

If you use a mainframe, you will want not want to attempt to program (or at least assembler) without your trusty Green Card. It has a code page with the ASCII, EBCDIC and Binary (except the new ones) codes from 0-255.

ISPF browse and edit "HEX ON" command

HEX VIRT	HEX DATA
BROWSE SYS1.LINKLIB(IEFBR14) Command ===> ...Ś.... 1F0F0000 BF7E0000	BROWSE SYS1.LINKLIB(IEFBR14) Command ===> ...Ś.... 1BFF07FE00000000

The REVIEW command from the CBT tape has a Hex viewing mode. Simply type in "HEX" on the command line:

 SYS1.LINKLIB(IEFBR14) -------------------
 COMMAND ===>
 1       5        10        15        20
/\------/\--------/\--------/\--------/\--
1BFF07FE00000000

The IDCAMS utility has a PRINT command that will print a file in hex dump format. Here is some sample JCL and control card to print in the default Hex dump format:

//IDCAMS   EXEC PGM=IDCAMS
//DD1      DD DISP=SHR,DSN=SYS1.LINKLIB(IEFBR14)
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSIN    DD *
 PRINT INFILE(DD1)
/*

RECORD SEQUENCE NUMBER - 7
000000  1BFF07FE 00000000           *........                        *

CompuWare's FileAid does both vertical and regular hex dumps of files. Here is some sample JCL and control cards:

//DUMPIT  EXEC PGM=FILEAID
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSLIST  DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSTOTAL DD SYSOUT=*
//DD01     DD DISP=SHR,DSN=SYS1.LINKLIB(IEFBR14)
//SYSIN    DD *
$$DD01 DUMP
/*


BLOCK      7 DATA    8 CHAR
0354-12-005  DATA    8 ZONE 1F0F0000
                       NUMR BF7E0000
                            1...5...

Serena's StarTools does both vertical and regular hex dumps of files at a fraction of the cost of FileAid.

IBM's SuperZap utility will do hex dumps of CSECTS in load modules and has an extremely primitive disassembler:

//STEP     EXEC PGM=AMASPZAP
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSLIB   DD DISP=SHR,DSN=SYS1.LINKLIB
//SYSIN    DD *
DUMPT IEFBR14  IEFBR14

**CCHHR- 0162000C06   RECORD LENGTH- 000008
 000000   1BFF 07FE  0000 0000
          SR   BCR

IBM's High Level Assembler includes a good Disassembler which shows a hex dump of a selected CSECT and the disassembled code.

How to get a hex dump on MVS in a program. These examples assume that you have a SYSUDUMP file allocated and your installation doesn't suppress the type of dump you ask for:

In assembler, use the ABEND macro:

CRASH_AND_BURN DS 0H
               ABEND 666,DUMP,REASON=1

In assembler, simply code "DC A(0)" which will cause a S0C1 ABEND.

In VS COBOL II, COBOL/370, COBOL for MVS and COBOL for OS/390 you can call ILBOABN0 using this COBOL code fragment:

  77  COMP-CODE PIC S9999 COMP.
          .
          .
          .
  MOVE uuuu TO COMP-CODE.
  CALL "ILBOABN0" USING COMP-CODE.

LE/370 enabled programs can call CEE3ABD See this COBOL sample that was posted on the IBM-Main mailing-list/newsgroup in May 1999:

      * ABEND-HANDLING
      * MODULE TO BE ABENDED WITH
       01 CEE3ABD         PIC X(8) VALUE 'CEE3ABD'.
      * ABEND WITH USER-CODE 16
       01 ABEND-CODE      PIC S9(8) USAGE IS BINARY VALUE 16.
      * CLOSE FILES AND CREATE A CEEDUMP: VALUE 1, ELSE ZERO
       01 CLEAN-UP        PIC S9(8) USAGE IS BINARY VALUE 1.
       .
       .
       .
           CALL CEE3ABD USING ABEND-CODE, CLEAN-UP

IBM has an Assembler macro called SNAP that can be used to take a snapshot (displayed as a hex dump) of a selected part of storage. Here is a code fragment:

         LA    R2,DATA                    Beginning of Area
         LA    R3,DATAE                   Get to the end
         OPEN  (SNAPDCB,(OUTPUT))         Open SNAP DCB
         SNAP  DCB=SNAPDCB,               SNAP the storage             @
               STORAGE=((2),(3))
         CLOSE SNAPDCB                    Close the SNAP DCB
         .
         .
         .
DATA     DC    C'Here''s some data to snap...'
DATAE    EQU   *-1
SNAPDCB  DCB   DDNAME=SNAPDD,DSORG=PS,LRECL=125,BLKSIZE=1632,          @
               RECFM=VBA,MACRF=(W)

JOB IBMUSERT         STEP DUMPIT          TIME 202845   DATE 99126                CPUID = D81234569021   PAGE 00000001

  PSW AT ENTRY TO SNAP    078D1000  00006F6E  ILC  02  INTC  0033

-STORAGE
00006F80                            C8859985    7DA240A2 96948540 8481A381 40A39640   *            Here's some data to *
00006FA0 A2958197 4B4B4B00                                                            *snap....                        *

The Compuware's ABENDAID product has a callable program called SNAPAID which is more flexible than IBM's SNAP macro. See your ABENDAID manual for details.

Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP:

010 Editor - Hex Editor Professional hex editor with Binary Templates [2004-01-05]
VEDIT - Universal File Editor - does hex and "knows" EBCDIC
HexDecCharEditor
Tritus/SPF, a PC-based SPF-like editor, has hex editing capabilities. It also can view data in EBCDIC format.
Ultra-Edit32 Text Editor - HEX Editor - HTML Editor Programmers Editor
Hex Workshop (32 Bit)
Harrys [sic] Windows Hex Editor Review
Libdump Hexadecimal dump functions for Windows NT

WWW Java and JavaScript:

Rolf's Calculator - a JavaScript calculator that does Hex.
Hex Clock

Linux:

Khexedit - Hex editor for the KDE desktop environment
Has EBCDIC support!
Linux Hex dump util
Has EBCDIC support!
HEXEDIT French Hex file editor for Linux
hasci - an interactive hex and ASCII file viewer

Other platforms:

ASCIIChart for the Palm Pilot
HexTool for Dos - a powerful mouse driven binary file editor

Sample Program source:

Number Base Conversion Programs
Get a Hex Dump in APL
Delphi Programming - Base conversions
Dave's Source Library has a Mini-Hex-Dump subroutine

XMITINFO and IMGINFO are two Rexx execs that I wrote that do a mini hex dump of a selected variable. Here is an example from XMITINFO:

Dump of: Segment flags=11100000 - length: 98
+offset 0 1 2 3  4 5 6 7  8 9 a b  c d e f
+000000 62E0C9D5 D4D9F0F1 00420001 00015010 *Ā\INMR01.ā....&.*

+000010 11000100 07D5D6C4 C5D5C1D4 10120001 *.....NODENAM....*
+000020 0007C9C2 D4E4E2C5 D9100100 010007C9 *..IBMUSER......I*
+000030 C2D4D4C1 C9D31002 00010007 C9C2D4E4 *BMMAIL......IBMU*
+000040 E2C5D910 24000100 0EF1F9F9 F7F0F6F2 *SER.„....1997062*
+000050 F1F1F1F4 F9F0F010 2F000100 01011026 *1114900.........*
+000060 0000                                *..              *

Calculators that do hex:

TI-34 Solar calculator
TI-36X Solar calculator
The calculator that comes with Windows (Scientific mode in View pull down).

Modern computer systmes use Base 16 which are represented via characters 0-9 and A-F, but the Royal-McBee LGP-30 used a different hex scheme.

Want a real taste of nostalgia, see: Computer Product Manuals Collection, Circa 1948 - [ongoing] from the Charles Babbage Institute of Computer History (CBI)

And then there is The story of Mel

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