Hex Dump Report

This report presents the raw data bytes for a specific record. It is depicted in the lower righthand corner of the Report Page (see Report Page - Figure 2), as well as in Figure 1. The data is organized into sequential rows, sixteen bytes each in length. The data in the report does not include the capture level protocol data. This data is discarded, since it represents an artificial protocol layer which exists only to organize the record data within the trace file and, as such, is not part of the record data itself.

Figure 1. Example of a Hex Dump Report (ASCII text format)

Report Columns

Offset Column. This column indicates the hexidecimal offset of the first byte in each row from the beginning of the record. Thus, the numbers in this column will always be a multiple of 0x10 (16 dec.).

Hexadecimal Column. This column presents the raw data bytes of the record in hexadecimal format, 16 bytes per row, color coded by protocol (see below).

ASCII/EBCDIC Column. This column presents the corresponding ASCII or EBCDIC representation of the bytes displayed in the Hexadecimal Column. Note that the heading for this column is a pushbutton rather than static text, as in the previous two columns. Pressing this button toggles between the two text representation formats. Each time the button is pressed, the heading title will alternate between ASCII (Figure 1) and EBCDIC (Figure 2), indicating which format currently is being displayed. Note also that any change to the text representation made here updates the global text representation user preference for the Trace Analyzer; the change is immediately reflected in all applicable views.

Figure 2. Example of a Hex Dump Report (EBCDIC text format)

Color Coding

The Hex Dump Report is color coded to easily identify the protocol to which each byte belongs. The color of every data byte in the hex dump matches the color assigned to its associated protocol. This applies to all three columns of the report. It is assumed that an individual byte is never shared between protocols. The color of the Offset Column number for each row is determined by the color of the protocol to which the first byte of that row belongs. If uninterpreted data remains after the current record has been analyzed as far as possible, these bytes are colored dark gray by default.

When the user selects a line in the Detailed Interpretation Report, the data bytes used in the interpretation for that line, if any, are highlighted in both the Hexadecimal Column and the ASCII/EBCDIC Column of the Hex Dump Report. Highlighted bytes have their color scheme inverted. For an example of this linkage between reports, see Detailed Interpretation Report - Selecting Lines.

Printing a Hex Dump

This report can be printed from the

File - Print menu item. See the Printing Reports section for additional information.