Control statements related to inputting, sorting, filtering, formatting, and outputting data records in a data processing system are scanned to find one or more formatting options related to character translation. Files comprising a plurality of data records are input, processed, and output as directed by the control statements. As specified by the formatting options, character translation operations are conducted on selected characters. The character translation operations are conducted in conjunction with inputting and outputting the data records. In one embodiment, the supported character translation operations include lowercase to uppercase conversion, uppercase to lowercase conversion, EBCDIC-to-ASCII conversion, ASCII-to-EBCDIC conversion, and user-definable character translation. The present invention increases the utility of a data processing system while minimizing the programming burden associated with translating selected characters while processing data records.