Peter, I looked at the link you provided for the lookup table, and decided to create a permanent table to use in the function. I also tweaked it to return only the final value, and to use a tally table instead of a recursive CTE. I'm not sure which is better, but I have never used a recursive CTE, so I wanted to stick with a solution I fully understood. A funny thing I noticed is that my function does not work without an index on the ascii values of the lookup table. Anyhow, I'll go ahead and post the code to create the look up table and the function (which assumes the existence of a tally table starting at 1) in case anyone is interested. Peter, once again, thank you for your so valuable post and code. I learned a great deal in tearing it apart until I fully understood what it is doing. Take care.

First the function...

USE master

GO

IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.fnAsciiToEbcdic','fn') IS NOT NULL

DROP FUNCTION dbo.fnAsciiToEbcdic

GO

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnAsciiToEbcdic](@v VARBINARY(8000))

RETURNS VARBINARY(8000)

AS BEGIN

DECLARE @return VARBINARY(8000)

SELECT

@return = ISNULL(@return,CAST('' AS VARBINARY(8000))) + a2e.EBCDIC_VAL

FROM master..Tally t INNER JOIN master..ASCII_EBCDIC a2e

ON SUBSTRING(@v,t.N,1) = a2e.ASCII_VAL

WHERE N <= DATALENGTH(@v)

RETURN @return

END

And now the lookup table...

USE master

GO

IF OBJECT_ID('master..ASCII_EBCDIC','u') IS NOT NULL

DROP TABLE master..ASCII_EBCDIC

GO

CREATE TABLE master..ASCII_EBCDIC

(

ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),

ASCII_VAL BINARY,

EBCDIC_VAL BINARY

)

INSERT INTO master..ASCII_EBCDIC

VALUES

(0x00, 0x00),(0x01, 0x01),(0x02, 0x02),(0x03, 0x03),(0x04, 0x37),

(0x05, 0x2D),(0x06, 0x2E),(0x07, 0x2F),(0x08, 0x16),(0x09, 0x05),

(0x0A, 0x25),(0x0B, 0x0B),(0x0C, 0x0C),(0x0D, 0x0D),(0x0E, 0x0E),

(0x0F, 0x0F),(0x10, 0x10),(0x11, 0x11),(0x12, 0x12),(0x13, 0x13),

(0x14, 0x3C),(0x15, 0x3D),(0x16, 0x32),(0x17, 0x26),(0x18, 0x18),

(0x19, 0x19),(0x1A, 0x3F),(0x1B, 0x27),(0x1C, 0x1C),(0x1D, 0x1D),

(0x1E, 0x1E),(0x1F, 0x1F),(0x20, 0x40),(0x21, 0x5A),(0x22, 0x7F),

(0x23, 0x7B),(0x24, 0x5B),(0x25, 0x6C),(0x26, 0x50),(0x27, 0x7D),

(0x28, 0x4D),(0x29, 0x5D),(0x2A, 0x5C),(0x2B, 0x4E),(0x2C, 0x6B),

(0x2D, 0x60),(0x2E, 0x4B),(0x2F, 0x61),(0x30, 0xF0),(0x31, 0xF1),

(0x32, 0xF2),(0x33, 0xF3),(0x34, 0xF4),(0x35, 0xF5),(0x36, 0xF6),

(0x37, 0xF7),(0x38, 0xF8),(0x39, 0xF9),(0x3A, 0x7A),(0x3B, 0x5E),

(0x3C, 0x4C),(0x3D, 0x7E),(0x3E, 0x6E),(0x3F, 0x6F),(0x40, 0x7C),

(0x41, 0xC1),(0x42, 0xC2),(0x43, 0xC3),(0x44, 0xC4),(0x45, 0xC5),

(0x46, 0xC6),(0x47, 0xC7),(0x48, 0xC8),(0x49, 0xC9),(0x4A, 0xD1),

(0x4B, 0xD2),(0x4C, 0xD3),(0x4D, 0xD4),(0x4E, 0xD5),(0x4F, 0xD6),

(0x50, 0xD7),(0x51, 0xD8),(0x52, 0xD9),(0x53, 0xE2),(0x54, 0xE3),

(0x55, 0xE4),(0x56, 0xE5),(0x57, 0xE6),(0x58, 0xE7),(0x59, 0xE8),

(0x5A, 0xE9),(0x5B, 0xBA),(0x5C, 0xE0),(0x5D, 0xBB),(0x5E, 0xB0),

(0x5F, 0x6D),(0x60, 0x79),(0x61, 0x81),(0x62, 0x82),(0x63, 0x83),

(0x64, 0x84),(0x65, 0x85),(0x66, 0x86),(0x67, 0x87),(0x68, 0x88),

(0x69, 0x89),(0x6A, 0x91),(0x6B, 0x92),(0x6C, 0x93),(0x6D, 0x94),

(0x6E, 0x95),(0x6F, 0x96),(0x70, 0x97),(0x71, 0x98),(0x72, 0x99),

(0x73, 0xA2),(0x74, 0xA3),(0x75, 0xA4),(0x76, 0xA5),(0x77, 0xA6),

(0x78, 0xA7),(0x79, 0xA8),(0x7A, 0xA9),(0x7B, 0xC0),(0x7C, 0x4F),

(0x7D, 0xD0),(0x7E, 0xA1),(0x7F, 0x07),(0x80, 0x20),(0x81, 0x21),

(0x82, 0x22),(0x83, 0x23),(0x84, 0x24),(0x85, 0x15),(0x86, 0x06),

(0x87, 0x17),(0x88, 0x28),(0x89, 0x29),(0x8A, 0x2A),(0x8B, 0x2B),

(0x8C, 0x2C),(0x8D, 0x09),(0x8E, 0x0A),(0x8F, 0x1B),(0x90, 0x30),

(0x91, 0x31),(0x92, 0x1A),(0x93, 0x33),(0x94, 0x34),(0x95, 0x35),

(0x96, 0x36),(0x97, 0x08),(0x98, 0x38),(0x99, 0x39),(0x9A, 0x3A),

(0x9B, 0x3B),(0x9C, 0x04),(0x9D, 0x14),(0x9E, 0x3E),(0x9F, 0xFF),

(0xA0, 0x41),(0xA1, 0xAA),(0xA2, 0x4A),(0xA3, 0xB1),(0xA4, 0x9F),

(0xA5, 0xB2),(0xA6, 0x6A),(0xA7, 0xB5),(0xA8, 0xBD),(0xA9, 0xB4),

(0xAA, 0x9A),(0xAB, 0x8A),(0xAC, 0x5F),(0xAD, 0xCA),(0xAE, 0xAF),

(0xAF, 0xBC),(0xB0, 0x90),(0xB1, 0x8F),(0xB2, 0xEA),(0xB3, 0xFA),

(0xB4, 0xBE),(0xB5, 0xA0),(0xB6, 0xB6),(0xB7, 0xB3),(0xB8, 0x9D),

(0xB9, 0xDA),(0xBA, 0x9B),(0xBB, 0x8B),(0xBC, 0xB7),(0xBD, 0xB8),

(0xBE, 0xB9),(0xBF, 0xAB),(0xC0, 0x64),(0xC1, 0x65),(0xC2, 0x62),

(0xC3, 0x66),(0xC4, 0x63),(0xC5, 0x67),(0xC6, 0x9E),(0xC7, 0x68),

(0xC8, 0x74),(0xC9, 0x71),(0xCA, 0x72),(0xCB, 0x73),(0xCC, 0x78),

(0xCD, 0x75),(0xCE, 0x76),(0xCF, 0x77),(0xD0, 0xAC),(0xD1, 0x69),

(0xD2, 0xED),(0xD3, 0xEE),(0xD4, 0xEB),(0xD5, 0xEF),(0xD6, 0xEC),

(0xD7, 0xBF),(0xD8, 0x80),(0xD9, 0xFD),(0xDA, 0xFE),(0xDB, 0xFB),

(0xDC, 0xFC),(0xDD, 0xAD),(0xDE, 0xAE),(0xDF, 0x59),(0xE0, 0x44),

(0xE1, 0x45),(0xE2, 0x42),(0xE3, 0x46),(0xE4, 0x43),(0xE5, 0x47),

(0xE6, 0x9C),(0xE7, 0x48),(0xE8, 0x54),(0xE9, 0x51),(0xEA, 0x52),

(0xEB, 0x53),(0xEC, 0x58),(0xED, 0x55),(0xEE, 0x56),(0xEF, 0x57),

(0xF0, 0x8C),(0xF1, 0x49),(0xF2, 0xCD),(0xF3, 0xCE),(0xF4, 0xCB),

(0xF5, 0xCF),(0xF6, 0xCC),(0xF7, 0xE1),(0xF8, 0x70),(0xF9, 0xDD),

(0xFA, 0xDE),(0xFB, 0xDB),(0xFC, 0xDC),(0xFD, 0x8D),(0xFE, 0x8E),

(0xFF, 0xDF)

GO

IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM SYSINDEXES WHERE name = 'IX_MASTER_ASCII_EBCDIC_ascii_val')

DROP INDEX ASCII_EBCDIC.IX_MASTER_ASCII_EBCDIC_ascii_val

GO

CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX IX_MASTER_ASCII_EBCDIC_ascii_val

ON ASCII_EBCDIC(ascii_val)