The NCS$SAVE_CF routine, used in conjunction with the NCS$RESTORE_CF routine, permits the application program to store a conversion function definition in a local file or in a database. When the calling program specifies the conversion function identifier, NCS returns the location of the definition and its length in bytes, permitting the calling program to store the definition locally, rather than in an NCS library. Subsequently, the application supplies this information to the NCS$RESTORE_CF routine, which restores the conversion function to a form that can be used by the NCS$CONVERT routine. This routine also does some integrity checking on the conversion function as it is being processed.