COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language)

History.
Developed by 1959 by a group called COnference on Data Systems Language
(CODASYL). First COBOL compiler was released by December 1959.

First ANSI approved version – 1968

Modified ANSI approved version – 1974 (OS/VS COBOL)
Modified ANSI approved version – 1985 (VS COBOL 2)
This book is written based on IBM COBOL for OS/390 V2R2.

Speciality.

1. First language developed for commercial application development,

which can efficiently handle millions of data.
2.Procedure Oriented Language - Problem is segmented into several tasks. Each task is written as a
Paragraph in Procedure Division and executed in a logical sequence as mentioned.
3.English Like language – Easy to learn, code and maintain.

Coding Sheet.

1 7 12 72 80
COL-A COLUMN-B

1-6 Page/line numbers – Optional (automatically assigned by compiler)

7 Continuity (-), Comment (*), Starting a new page (/) , Debugging lines (D)
8-11 Column A –Division, Section, Paragraph, 01,77 declarations must begin here.
12-72 Column B –All the other declarations/statements begin here.
73-80 Identification field. It will be ignored by the compiler but visible in the source listing.

Language Structure.

Character Digits (0-9), Alphabets (A-Z), Space (b), Special Characters (+ - * / ( ) = $ ; “ > < . ,)
Word One or more characters- User defined or Reserved
Clause One or more words. It specifies an attribute for an entry
Statement
One or more valid words and clauses
Sentence
One or more statements terminated by a period
Paragraph
One or more sentences.
Section
One or more paragraphs.
Division
One or more sections or paragraphs
Program
Made up of four divisions
Divisions in COBOL.

There are four divisions in a COBOL program and Data division is optional.
1.Identification Division.
2.Environment Division.
3.Data Division.
4.Procedure Division.

Identification Division.

This is the first division and the program is identified here.

Paragraph
PROGRAM-ID followed by user-defined name is mandatory. All other
paragraphs are optional and used for documentation. The length of
user-defined name for IBM COBOL is EIGHT.

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. PROGRAM NAME.
AUTHOR. COMMENT ENTRY.
INSTALLATION. COMMENT ENTRY.
DATE-WRITTEN. COMMENT ENTRY.
DATE-COMPILED. COMMENT ENTRY.
SECURITY. COMMENT ENTRY.

Security does not pertain to the operating system security, but the information that is passed to the user of
the program about the security features of the program.

Environment Division.

Only machine dependant division of COBOL program. It supplies information

about the hardware or computer equipment to be used on the program.

When your program moves from one computer to another computer, the only section
that may need to be changed is ENVIRONMENT division.

Configuration Section.
It supplies information concerning the computer on which the program will be compiled (SOURCE-
COMPUTER) and executed (OBJECT-COMPUTER). It consists of three paragraphs – SOURCE
COMPUTER, OBJECT-COMPUTER and SPECIAL-NAMES. This is OPTIONAL section from
COBOL 85.
SOURCE-COMPUTER. IBM-4381 (Computer and model # supplied by
manufacturer)

WITH DEBUGGING MODE clause specifies that the debugging lines in the program
(statements coded with ‘D’ in column 7) are compiled.

OBJECT-COMPUTER. IBM-4381 (Usually same as source computer)

SPECIAL-NAMES. This paragraph is used to relate hardware names to user-specified mnemonic names.

1.Substitute character for currency sign. (CURRENCY SIGN IS litearal-1)

2. Comma can be used as decimal point. (DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA)

3. Default collating sequence can be changed. It will be explained later.

4. New class can be defined using CLASS keyword. (CLASS DIGIT is “0” thru “9”)

When your program moves from one computer to another computer, the only section
that may need to be changed is ENVIRONMENT division.

Configuration Section.
It supplies information concerning the computer on which the program will be compiled (SOURCE-
COMPUTER) and executed (OBJECT-COMPUTER). It consists of three paragraphs – SOURCE
COMPUTER, OBJECT-COMPUTER and SPECIAL-NAMES. This is OPTIONAL section from
COBOL 85.

SOURCE-COMPUTER. IBM-4381 (Computer and model # supplied by manufacturer)

WITH DEBUGGING MODE clause specifies that the debugging lines in the program
(statements coded with ‘D’ in column 7) are compiled.

OBJECT-COMPUTER. IBM-4381 (Usually same as source computer)

SPECIAL-NAMES. This paragraph is used to relate hardware names to user-specified mnemonic names.

1. Substitute character for currency sign. (CURRENCY SIGN IS litearal-1)

2.Comma can be used as decimal point. (DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA)

3. Default collating sequence can be changed. It will be explained later.

4. New class can be defined using CLASS keyword. (CLASS DIGIT is “0” thru “9”)
Input-Output Section.
It contains information regarding the files to be used in the program and it consists of two paragraphs
FILE-CONTROL & I-O CONTROL. FILE CONTROL. Files used in the program are identified in this
paragraph. I-O CONTROL. It specifies when check points to be taken and storage
areas that are shared by different files.

Data Division.

Data division is used to define the data that need to be accessed by

the
program. It has three sections.
FILE SECTION

describes the record structure of the files.

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION is used to for define intermediate variables.
LINKAGE SECTION

is used to access the external data.

Ex: Data passed from other programs or from PARM of JCL.
Literals, Constants, Identifier,
1.
Literal is a constant and it can be numeric or non-numeric.
2.

Numeric literal can hold 18 digits and non-numeric literal can hold
160
characters in it. (COBOL74 supports 120 characters only)
3.

Literal stored in a named memory location is called as variable or

identifier.
4.

Figurative Constant is a COBOL reserved word representing frequently

used constants. They are ZERO/ZEROS/ZEROES, QUOTE/QUOTES, SPACE/SPACES,
ALL, HIGH-VALUE/HIGH-VALUES, LOW-VALUE/LOW-VALUES.

Example: 01 WS-VAR1 PIC X(04) VALUE ‘MUSA’.

‘MUSA ‘ is a non-numeric literal. WS-VAR1 is a identifier or variable.

Declaration of variable

Level# $ Variable $ Picture clause $ Value clause $ Usage Clause $ Sync

clause.

FILLER
Level#
It specifies the hierarchy of data within a record. It can take a value
from the set of integers between 01-49 or from one of the special
level-numbers 66 77 88

01 level.

Specifies the record itself. It may be either a group item or

an
Elementary item. It must begin in Area A.
02-49 levels. Specify group or elementary items within a record. Group
level items

must not have picture clause.

66 level.
Identify the items that contain the RENAMES clause.
77 level.
Identify independent data item.
88 level.
Condition names.
Variable name and Qualifier

Variable name can have 1-30 characters with at least one alphabet in
it.
Hyphen is the only allowed special character but it cannot be first or
last letter of the name. Name should be unique within the record. If
two
variables with same name are there, then use OF qualifier of high level
grouping to refer a variable uniquely.
Ex: MOVE balance OF record-1 TO balance OF record-2.

FILLER
When the program is not intended to use selected fields in a record
structure, define them as FILLER. FILLER items cannot be initialized or
used in any operation of the procedure division.

PICTURE Clause
Describes the attributes of variable.
Numeric
9 (Digit), V (Implied decimal point), S (Sign)
Numeric Edited
 + (Plus Sign), - (Minus Sign), CR DB (Credit Debit
Sign).
(Period), b (Blank), ‘,’(comma), 0 (Zero), / (Slash)BLANK WHEN ZERO
(Insert blank when data value is 0),Z (ZERO suppression), * (ASTERISK),
$(Currency Sign)
Non Numeric A (alphabet), B (Blank insertion Character), X(Alpha
numeric),
G(DBCS)

Exclusive sets 1.
+ - CR DB2. V ‘.’3. $ + - Z * (But $ Can appear as
first place and * as floating. $***.**)

DBCS (Double Byte Character Set) is used in the applications that

support
large character sets. 16 bits are used for one character. Ex: Japanese
language applications.

Refreshing Basics
Nibble.

4 Bits is one nibble. In packed decimal, each

nibble
stores one digit.
Byte.

8 Bits is one byte. By default, every character is

stored in one byte.
Half word.

16 bits or 2 bytes is one half word. (MVS)

Full word.
32 bits or 4 bytes is one full word. (MVS)
Double word. 64 bits or 8 bytes is one double word. (MVS)
Usage Clause
DISPLAY
Default. Number of bytes required equals to the size of the

data
item.
COMP

Binary representation of data item.

PIC clause can contain S and 9 only.
S9(01) – S9(04)
Half word.
S9(05) – S9(09)
Full word.
S9(10) - S9(18)

Double word.
Most significant bit is ON if the number is negative.
COMP-1

Single word floating point item. PIC Clause should not be

specified.
COMP-2

Double word floating-point item. PIC Clause should not be

specified.
COMP-3

Packed Decimal representation. Two digits are stored in each

byte.
Last nibble is for sign. (F for unsigned positive, C for signed
positive
and D for signed negative)
Formula for Bytes: Integer ((n/2) + 1)) => n is number of 9s.
INDEX

It is used for preserve the index value of an array. PIC Clause

should
not be specified.

VALUE Clause
It is used for initializing data items in the working storage section.
Value of item must not exceed picture size. It cannot be specified for
the
items whose size is variable.
Syntax:

VALUE IS literal.
VALUES ARE literal-1 THRU | THROUGH literal-2
VALUES ARE literal-1, literal-2

Literal can be numeric without quotes OR non-numeric within quotes OR

figurative constant.
SIGN Clause
Syntax
 SIGN IS (LEADING) SEPARATE CHARACTER (TRAILING).
It is applicable when the picture string contain ‘S’. Default is
TRAILING
WITH NO SEPARATE CHARACTER. So ‘S’ doesn’t take any space. It is stored
along with last digit.

+1=A +2=B +3=C +4=D +5=E +6=F +7=G +8=H +9=I

-0=}, -1= J, -2= K, -3=L, -4=M, -5=N, -6=O, -7=P, -8=Q, -9=R
Number
TRAILING SIGN (Default) LEADING SIGN
LEADING
SEPARATE.
-125 12N J25
-125
+125 12E A25 +125

SYNC Clause and Slack Bytes

SYNC clause is specified with COMP, COMP-1 and COMP-2 items. These
items
are expected to start at half/full/double word boundaries for faster
address resolution. SYNC clause does this but it may introduce slack
bytes
(unused bytes) before the binary item.

01 WS-TEST.
10 WS-VAR1 PIC X(02).
10 WS-VAR2 PIC S9(6) COMP SYNC.

Assumes WS-TEST starts at relative location 0 in the memory, WS-VAR1

occupies zero and first byte. WS-VAR2 is expected to start at second
byte.
As the comp item in the example needs one word and it is coded with
SYNC
clause, it will start only at the next word boundary that is 4th byte.
So
this introduces two slack bytes between WS-VAR1 and WS-VAR2.

REDEFINES

The REDEFINES clause allows you to use different data description

entries
to describe the same computer storage area. Redefining declaration
should
immediately follow the redefined item and should be done at the same
 level. Multiple redefinitions are possible. Size of redefined and
redefining need not be the same.

Example:
01 WS-DATE PIC 9(06).
01 WS-REDEF-DATE REDEFINES WS-DATE.

05
WS-YEAR
PIC 9(02).
05
WS-MON
PIC 9(02).
05
WS-DAY
PIC 9(02).
RENAME
It is used for regrouping of elementary data items in a record. It

should
be declared at 66 level. It need not immediately follows the data item,
which is being renamed. But all RENAMES entries associated with one
logical record must immediately follow that record's last data
description
entry. RENAMES cannot be done for a 01, 77, 88 or another 66 entry.

01 WS-REPSONSE.
05 WS-CHAR143
PIC X(03).
05 WS-CHAR4
PIC X(04).
66 ADD-REPSONSE RENAMES WS-CHAR143.
CONDITION name

It is identified with special level ‘88’. A condition name specifies

the
value that a field can contain and used as abbreviation in condition
checking.
01 SEX PIC X.88 MALE VALUE ‘1’

88 FEMALE VALUE ‘2’ ‘3’.

IF SEX=1 can also be coded as IF MALE in Procedure division.

‘SET FEMALE TO TRUE ‘ moves value 2 to SEX. If multiple values are
coded
on VALUE clause, the first value will be moved when it is set to true.
JUSTIFIED RIGHT
This clause can be specified with alphanumeric and alphabetic items for
right justification. It cannot be used with 66 and 88 level items.

OCCURS Clause
OCCURS Clause is used to allocate physically contiguous memory
locations
to store the table values and access them with subscript or index.
Detail
explanation is given in Table Handling section.

LINKAGE SECTION

It is used to access the data that are external to the program. JCL can
send maximum 100 characters to a program thru PARM. Linkage section
MUST
be coded with a half word binary field, prior to actual field. If
length
field is not coded, the first two bytes of the field coded in the
linkage
section will be filled with length and so there are chances of 2 bytes
data truncation in the actual field.

01 LK-DATA
05 LK-LENGTH
PIC S9(04) COMP.
05 LK-VARIABLE
PIC X(08).
LINKAGE section of sub-programs will be explained later.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.

This is the last division and business logic is coded here. It has
user-defined sections and paragraphs. Section name should be unique
within
the program and paragraph name should be unique within the section.

Procedure division statements are broadly classified into following

categories.
Statement Type
Meaning
Imperative
Direct the program to take a specific action.Ex: MOVE ADD
EXIT
GO TO
Conditional Decide the truth or false of relational condition and based
on
it, execute different paths.

Ex: IF, EVALUATE

Compiler Directive Directs the compiler to take specific action during
compilation.Ex: COPY SKIP EJECT
Explicit Scope terminator

Terminate the scope of conditional and

imperative statements.Ex: END-ADD END-IF END-EVALUATE
Implicit Scope terminator

The period at the end of any sentence,

terminates the scope ofall previous statements not yet terminated.
MOVE Statement
It is used to transfer data between internal storage areas defined in
either file section or working storage section.

Syntax:
MOVE identifier1/literal1/figurative-constant TO identifier2
(identifier3)
Multiple move statements can be separated using comma, semicolons,
blanks
or the keyword THEN.

Numeric move rules:

A numeric or numeric-edited item receives data in such a way that the
decimal point is aligned first and then filling of the receiving field
takes place.
Unfilled positions are filled with zero. Zero suppression or insertion
of
editing symbols takes places according to the rules of editing
pictures.

If the receiving field width is smaller than sending field then excess
digits, to the left and/or to the right of the decimal point are
truncated.

Alphanumeric Move Rules:

Alphabetic, alphanumeric or alphanumeric-edited data field receives the
data from left to right. Any unfilled field of the receiving filed is
filled with spaces.
When the length of receiving field is shorter than that of sending
field,
then receiving field accepts characters from left to right until it is
filled. The unaccomodated characters on the right of the sending field
are
truncated.
When an alphanumeric field is moved to a numeric or numeric-edited
field,
the item is moved as if it were in an unsigned numeric integer mode.

CORRESPONDING can be used to transfer data between items of the same

names belonging to different group-items by specifying the names of
group-items to which they belong.

MOVE CORRESPONDING group-1 TO group-2

Group Move rule

When MOVE statement is used to move information at group level, the

movement of data takes place as if both sending and receiving fields
are
specified as alphanumeric items. This is regardless of the description
of
the elementary items constituting the group item.

Samples for understanding MOVE statement (MOVE A TO B)

Picture of A Value of A
Picture of B Value of B after Move
PIC 99V99
12.35 PIC 999V99 012.35
PIC 99V99
12.35 PIC9999V9999
0012.3500
PIC 99V999 12.345 PIC 9V99
2.34
PIC9(05)V9(03)
54321.543
PIC 9(03)V9(03)
321.543
PIC 9(04)V9(02)
23.24 PIC ZZZ99.9 23.2
PIC 99V99
00.34 PIC $$$.99
$.34
PIC X(04)
MUSA XBXBXB
MUS
ARITHMETIC VERBS
All the possible arithmetic operations in COBOL using ADD, SUBTRACT,
MULTIPLY and DIVIDE are given below:
Arithmetic Operation A
B
C
D
ADD A TO B A
A+B
ADD A B C TO D
A
B
C
A+B+C+D
ADD A B C GIVING D
A
B
C
A+B+C
ADD A TO B C
A
A+B A+C
SUBTRACT A FROM B
A
B-A
SUBTRACT A B FROM C A
B
C-(A+B)
SUBTRACT A B FROM C GIVING D
A
B
C
C-(A+B)
MULTIPLY A BY B A
A*B
MULTIPLY A BY B GIVING C
A
B
A*B
DIVIDE A INTO B A
B/A
DIVIDE A INTO B GIVING C
A
B
B/A
DIVIDE A BY B GIVING C A
B
A/B
DIVIDE A INTO B GIVING C REMAINDER D A
B
Integer (B/A) Integer
remainder
GIVING is used in the following cases:
1.To retain the values of operands participating in the operation.
2.The resultant value of operation exceeds any of the operand size.

ROUNDED option

With ROUNDED option, the computer will always round the result to the
PICTURE clause specification of the receiving field. It is usually
coded
after the field to be rounded. It is prefixed with REMAINDER keyword

ONLY
in DIVIDE operation.
ADD A B GIVING C ROUNDED.
DIVIDE..ROUNDED REMAINDER
Caution: Don’t use for intermediate computation.
ON SIZE ERROR
If A=20 (PIC 9(02)) and B=90 (PIC 9(02)), ADD A TO B will result 10 in
Bwhere the expected value in B is 110. ON SIZE ERROR clause is coded to

trap such size errors in arithmetic operation.

If this is coded with arithmetic statement, any operation that ended
with
SIZE error will not be carried out but the statement follows ON SIZE
ERROR
will be executed.
ADD A TO B ON SIZE ERROR DISPLAY ‘ERROR!’.

COMPUTE

Complex arithmetic operations can be carried out using COMPUTE

statement.
We can use arithmetic symbols than keywords and so it is simple and
easy
to code.
+ For ADD, - for SUBTRACT, * for MULTIPLY, / for DIVIDE and ** for
exponentiation.
Rule: Left to right – 1.Parentheses

2.Exponentiation
3.Multiplication and Division
4.Addition and Subtraction

Caution: When ROUNDED is coded with COMPUTE, some compiler will do

rounding for every arithmetic operation and so the final result would
 not
be precise.

77 A PIC 999 VALUE 10

COMPUTE A ROUNDED = (A+2.95) *10.99

Result: (ROUNDED(ROUNDED(12.95) * ROUNDED(10.99)) =120 or

ROUNDED(142.3205) = 142
So the result can be 120 or 142.Be cautious when using ROUNDED keyword
with COMPUTE statement.

All arithmetic operators have their own explicit scope terminators.

(END-ADD, END-SUBTRACT, END-MULTIPLY, END-DIVIDE, END-COMPUTE). It
is
suggested to use them.
CORRESPONDING is available for ADD and SUBTRACT only.

INITIALIZE

VALUE clause is used to initialize the data items in the working

storage
section whereas INITIALIZE is used to initialize the data items in the
procedure division.
INITIALIZE sets the alphabetic, alphanumeric and alphanumeric-edited
items
to SPACES and numeric and numeric-edited items to ZERO. This can be
overridden by REPLACING option of INITIALIZE. FILLER, OCCURS DEPENDING
ON
items are not affected.
Syntax:

INITIALIZE identifier-1
REPLACING (ALPHABETIC/ALPHANUMERIC/ALPHA-NUMERIC-
EDITED
NUMERIC/NUMERIC-EDITED)
DATA BY (identifier-2 /Literal-2)
ACCEPT

ACCEPT can transfer data from input device or system information

contain
in the reserved data items like DATE, TIME, DAY.
ACCEPT WS-VAR1 (FROM DATE/TIME/DAY/OTHER SYSTEM VARS).
If FROM Clause is not coded, then the data is read from terminal. At
the
time of execution, batch program will ABEND if there is no in-stream
data
from JCL and there is no FROM clause in the ACCEPT clause.

DATE option returns six digit current date inYYYYMMDD

DAY returns 5 digit current date in YYDDD
TIME returns 8 digit RUN TIME in HHMMSSTT
DAY-OF-WEEK returns single digit whose value can be 1-7 (Monday-Sunday
respectively)

DISPLAY
It is used to display data. By default display messages are routed to
SYSOUT.
Syntax:
DISPLAY identifier1| literal1 (UPON mnemonic name)

STOP RUN, EXIT PROGRAM & GO BACK

STOP RUN is the last executable statement of the main program. It
returns
control back to OS.
EXIT PROGRAM is the last executable statement of sub-program. It
returns
control back to main program.
GOBACK can be coded in main program as well as sub-program as the last
statement. It just gives the control back from where it received the
control.

Collating Sequence
There are two famous Collating Sequence available in computers. IBM and
IBM Compatible machine use EBCDIC collating sequence whereas most micro
and many mainframe systems use ASCII collating sequence. The result of
arithmetic and alphabetic comparison would be same in both collating
sequences whereas the same is not true for alphanumeric comparison.

EBCDIC (Ascending Order) ASCII (Ascending Order)

Special Characters
Special Characters
a-z
0-9
A-Z A-Z
0-9
a-z

Default collating sequence can be overridden by an entry in

OBJECT-COMPUTER and SPECIAL NAMES paragraphs.
1. Code the PROGRAM COLLATING SEQUENCE Clause in the Object computer
paragraph. PROGRAM COLLATING SEQUENCE IS alphabet-name
2. Map the alphabet-name in the SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph as follows:
ALPHABET alphabet-name is STANDARD-1 | NATIVE
NATIVE stands for computer’s own collating sequence whereas STANDARD-1
stands for ASCII collating sequence.

IF/THEN/ELSE/END-IF

The most famous decision making statement in all language is ‘IF’. The
syntax of IF statement is given below: IF can be coded without any ELSE
statement. THEN is a noise word and it is optional.

If ORs & ANDs are used in the same sentence, ANDs are evaluated first
from left to right, followed by ORs. This rule can be overridden by
using
parentheses.

The permitted relation conditions are =, <, >, <=, >=, <>

CONTINUE is no operation statement. The control is just passed to next

STATEMENT. NEXT SENTENCE passes the control to the next SENTENCE. If
you
forgot the difference between statement and sentence, refer the first
page.

It is advised to use END-IF, explicit scope terminator for the IF

statements than period, implicit scope terminator.
IF condition1 AND condition2 THEN
Statement-Block-1
ELSE
IF condition3 THEN
CONTINUE
ELSE
IF condition4 THEN
Statement-Block-2
ELSE
NEXT SENTENCE
END-IF
END-IF
END-IF

Statement-Block-2 will be executed only when condition 1, 2 and 4 are

TRUE
and condition 3 is FALSE.

Implied operand: In compound conditions, it is not always necessary to

specify both operands for each condition. IF TOTAL=7 or 8 is
acceptable.
Here TOTAL=8 is implied operation.

SIGN test and CLASS test

SIGN test is used to check the sign of a data item. It can be done as
follows –

IF identifier is POSITIVE/NEGATIVE/ZERO

CLASS test is used to check the content of data item against

pre-defined
range of values. It can be done as follows -

IF identifier is NUMERIC/ALPHABETIC/ALPHABETIC-HIGHER/

ALPHABETIC-LOWER
You can define your own classes in the special names paragraph. We have
defined a class DIGIT in our special names paragraph. It can be used in
the following way.
IF identifier is DIGIT

Negated conditions.

Any simple, relational, class, sign test can be negated using NOT.
But it is not always true that NOT NEGATIVE is equal to POSITIVE.
(Example
ZERO)

EVALUATE

With COBOL85, we use the EVALUATE verb to implement the case structure
of
other languages. Multiple IF statements can be efficiently and
effectively
replaced with EVALUATE statement. After the execution of one of the
when
clauses, the control is automatically come to the next statement after
the
END-EVALUATE. Any complex condition can be given in the WHEN clause.
Break
statement is not needed, as it is so in other languages.
General Syntax
EVALUATE subject-1 (ALSO subject2..)

WHEN object-1 (ALSO object2..)

 WHEN object-3 (ALSO object4..)

WHEN OTHER imperative statement

END--EVALUATE
1.Number of Subjects in EVALUATE clause should be equal to number of
objects in every WHEN clause.
2.Subject can be variable, expression or the keyword TRUE/ FLASE and
respectively objects can be values, TRUE/FALSE or any condition.
3.If none of the WHEN condition is satisfied, then WHEN OTHER path will
be
executed.
Sample

EVALUATE SQLCODE ALSO TRUE

WHEN 100 ALSO A=B imperative statement
WHEN -305 ALSO (A/C=4) imperative statement
WHEN OTHER imperative statement
END-EVALUATE

PERFORM STATEMENTS

PERFORM will be useful when you want to execute a set of statements in

multiple places of the program. Write all the statements in one
paragraph
and invoke it using PERFORM wherever needed. Once the paragraph is
executed, the control comes back to next statement following the
PERFORM.

1.SIMPLE PERFORM.
PERFORM PARA-1.
DISPLAY ‘PARA-1 executed’

STOP RUN.
PARA-1.
Statement1
Statement2.

It executes all the instructions coded in PARA-1 and then transfers

the
control to the next instruction in sequence.

2.INLINE PERFORM.

When sets of statements are used only in one place then we can group
all
of them within PERFORM END-PERFORM structure. This is called INLINE
PERFORM.
This is equal to DO..END structure of other languages.

PERFORM
ADD A TO B
MULTIPLE B BY C
DISPLAY ‘VALUE OF A+B*C ‘ C
END-PERFORM
3. PERFORM PARA-1 THRU PARA-N.
All the paragraphs between PARA-1 and PARA-N are executed once.

4. PERFORM PARA-1 THRU PARA-N UNTIL condition(s).

The identifiers used in the UNTIL condition(s) must be altered within
the
paragraph(s) being performed; otherwise the paragraphs will be
performed
indefinitely. If the condition in the UNTIL clause is met at first time
of
execution, then named paragraph(s) will not be executed at all.

5. PERFORM PARA-1 THRU PARA-N N TIMES.

N can be literal defined as numeric item in working storage or hard
coded
constant.

6. PERFORM PARA-1 THRU PARA-N VARYING identifier1

FROM identifier 2 BY identifier3 UNTIL condition(s)

Initialize identifier1 with identifier2 and test the condition(s). If
the
condition is false execute the statements in PARA-1 thru PARA-N and
increment identifier1 BY identifier3 and check the condition(s) again.
If
the condition is again false, repeat this process till the condition is
satisfied.

7.PERFORM PARA-1 WITH TEST BEFORE/AFTER UNTIL condition(s).

With TEST BEFORE, Condition is checked first and if it found false,
then
PARA-1 is executed and this is the default. (Functions like DO- WHILE)
With TEST AFTER, PARA-1 is executed once and then the condition is
checked. (Functions like DO-UNTIL)
Refer Table session for eighth type of PERFORM.
EXIT statement.
COBOL reserved word that performs NOTHING. It is used as a single
statement in a paragraph that indicate the end of paragraph(s)
execution.
EXIT must be the only statement in a paragraph in COBOL74 whereas it
can
be used with other statements in COBOL85.

GO TO Usage:

In a structured top-down programming GO TO is not preferable. It offers

permanent control transfer to another paragraph and the chances of
logic
errors is much greater with GO TO than PERFORM. The readability of the
program will also be badly affected.
But still GO TO can be used within the paragraphs being performed. i.e.
When using the THRU option of PERFORM statement, branches or GO TO
statements, are permitted as long as they are within the range of named
paragraphs.

PERFORM 100-STEP1 THRU STEP-4

..
100-STEP-1.
ADD A TO B GIVING C.
IF D = ZERO DISPLAY ‘MULTIPLICATION NOT DONE’
GO TO 300-STEP3
END-IF.
200-STEP-2.
MULTIPLY C BY D.
300-STEP-3.
DISPLAY ‘VALUE OF C:’ C.
Here GO TO used within the range of PERFORM. This kind of Controlled GO
TO
is fine with structured programming also!
TABLES

An OCCURS clause is used to indicate the repeated occurrences of items

of
the same format in a structure. OCCURS clause is not valid for 01, 77,
88
levels.
It can be defined as elementary or group item. Initialization of large
table occurrences with specific values are usually done using perform
loops in procedure division. Simple tables can be initialized in the
following way.
01 WEEK-ARRAY VALUE ‘MONTUEWEDTHUFRISATSUN’.
05 WS-WEEK-DAYS OCCURS 7 TIMES PIC X(03).
Dynamic array is the array whose size is decided during runtime just
before the access of first element of the array.
01 WS-MONTH-DAY-CAL.
05 WS-DAYS OCCURS 31 TIMES DEPENDING ON WS-
OCCURENCE.
IF MONTH = ‘FEB’ MOVE ‘28’ to WS-OCCURRENCE.

Array Items can be accessed using INDEX or subscript and the difference
between them are listed in the table. Relative subscripts and relative
indexes are supported only in COBOL85. Literals used in relative
subscripting/indexing must be an unsigned integer.
ADD WS-SAL(SUB) WS-SAL(SUB + 1) TO WS-SAL(SUB + 2).

Sl # Subscript
Index
1
Working Storage item Internal Item – No need to declare it.
2
It means occurrence It means displacement
3

Occurrence, in turn translated to displacement to access elements and

so
slower than INDEX access. Faster and efficient.
4

It can be used in any arithmetic operations or for display. It cannot

be
used for arithmetic operation or for display purpose.
5

Subscripts can be modified by any arithmetic statement.

INDEX can
only
be modified with SET, SEARCH and PERFORM statements.

Sometimes, you may face a question like how to randomly access the
information in the sequential file of 50 records that contains all the
designation and the respective lower and higher salary information.

Obviously, OS does not allow you to randomly access the sequence file.
You have to do by yourself and the best way is, load the file into a
working storage table in the first section of the program and then
 access
as you wish.

The table look-up can be done in two ways.

-Sequential search.
-Binary search.

Sequential SEARCH

During SERIAL SEARCH, the first entry of the table is searched. If the
condition is met, the table look-up is completed. If the condition is
not
met, then index or subscript is incremented by one and the next entry
is
searched and the process continues until a match is found or the table
has
been completely searched.

SET indexname-1 TO 1.

SEARCH identifier-1 AT END display ‘match not found:’

WHEN condition-1 imperative statement-1 /NEXT SENTENCE
WHEN condition-2 imperative statement-2 /NEXT SENTENCE

END-SEARCH
Identifier-1 should be OCCURS item and not 01 item.
Condition-1, Condition-2 compares an input field or search argument
with a
table argument.
Though AT END Clause is optional, it is highly recommended to code
that.
Because if it is not coded and element looking for is not found, then
the
control simply comes to the next statement after SEARCH where an
invalid
table item can be referred and that may lead to incorrect results /
abnormal ends.

SET statement Syntax:

SET index-name-1 TO/UP BY/DOWN BY integer-1.
Binary SEARCH

When the size of the table is large and it is arranged in some

sequence –either ascending or descending on search field, then BINARY
SEARCH would be the efficient method.
SEARCH ALL identifier-1 AT END imperative-statement-1
WHEN dataname-1 = identifier-2/literal-1/arithmetic expression-1

AND dataname-2 = identifier-3/literal-2/arithmetic

expression-2
END-SEARCH.

Identifier-2 and identifier-3 are subscripted items and dataname-1 and

dataname-2 are working storage items that are not subscripted.
Compare the item to be searched with the item at the center. If it
matches
fine, else repeat the process with the left or right half depending on
where the item lies.

Sl # Sequential SEARCH Binary SEARCH

1
SEARCH
SEARCH ALL
2
Table should have INDEX Table should have INDEX
3

Table need not be in SORTED order. Table should be in sorted order

of
the searching argument. There should be ASCENDING/DESCENDING Clause.
4

Multiple WHEN conditions can be coded. Only one WHEN condition can be
coded.
5.

Any logical comparison is possible. Only = is possible. Only AND is

possible in compound conditions.
6

Index should be set to 1 before using SEARCH

Index need not be set to
1before SEARCH ALL.
7
Prefer when the table size is small Prefer when the table size is
significantly large.
Multi Dimensional Arrays

COBOL74 supports array of maximum of three dimensions whereas COBOL85

supports up to seven dimensions. The lowest- level OCCURS data-name or
an
item subordinate to it is used to access an entry in the array or the
 table.
If we use SEARCH for accessing multi-dimension table, then INDEXED BY
must
be used on all OCCURS levels. Expanded nested perform is available for
processing multi level tables. The syntax of this perform is given
below:

PERFORM para-1 thru para-n

VARYING index-1 from 1 BY 1 UNTIL index-1 > size- of- outer-occurs
AFTER VARYING index-2 from 1 by 1 until index-2 > size of inner
occurs.

SEARCH example for multi level tables:

01 EMP-TABLE.
05 DEPTNUMBER OCCURS 10 TIMES INDEXED BY I1.

10 EMP-DETAIL OCCURS 50 TIMES INDEXED BY I2.

15 EMP-NUMBER PIC 9(04).
15 EMP-SALARY PIC 9(05).

77 EMPNUMBER-IN
PIC 9(04) VALUE ‘2052’.
PERFORM 100-SEARCH-EMP-SAL VARYING I1 FROM 1 BY 1
UNTIL I1 > 10 OR WS-FOUND

100-SEARCH-EMP-SAL.
SET I2 TO 1.
SEARCH EMP-DETAIL AT END DISPLAY ‘NOT FOUND’ == > Lowest

Occurs
WHEN EMPNUMBER-IN = EMP-NUMBER(I1,I2)
DISPLAY ‘SALARY IS:’ EMP-SALARY(I1,I2)
SET WS-FOUND TO TRUE
== > Search ends
END-SEARCH.
NESTED PROGRAMS, GLOBAL, EXTERNAL
One program may contain other program(s). The contained program(s) may

themselves contain yet other program(s). All the contained and

containing
programs should end with END PROGRAM statement. PGMB is nested a
program
in the example below:
Example:
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. PGMA
…
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. PGMB
…END PROGRAM PGMB.

…END PROGRAM PGMA.

If you want access any working storage variable of PGMA in PGMB, then
declare them with the clause ‘IS GLOBAL’ in PGMA. If you want to access
any working storage variable of PGMB in PGMA, declare them with the
clause
‘IS EXTERNAL’ in PGMB. Nested Programs are supported only in COBOL85.
If there is a program PGMC inside PGMB, it cannot be called from PGMA
unless it’s program id is qualified with keyword COMMON.

SORT and MERGE

The programming SORT is called as internal sort whereas the sort in

JCL
is called external sort. If you want to manipulate the data before
feeding
to sort, prefer internal sort. In all other cases, external sort is the
good choice. Internal sort, in turn invokes the SORT product of your
installation. (DFSORT). In the run JCL, allocate at least three sort
work
files. (SORT-WKnn => nn can be 00-99).
FASTSRT compiler option makes the DFSORT to do all file I-O operation
than
your COBOL program. It would significantly improve the performance. The
result of the SORT can be checked in SORT-RETURN register. If the sort
is
successful, the value will be 0 else 16.

Syntax:
SORT SORTFILE ON ASCENDING /DESCENDING KEY sd-key-1 sd-key2
USING file1 file2 / INPUT PROCEDURE IS section-1
GIVING file3

/ OUTPUT PROCEDURE is section-2

END-SORT
File1, File2 are to-be-sorted input files and File3 is sorted-output
file
and all
of them are defined in FD.SORTFILE is Disk SORT Work file that is
defined
at SD. It should not be explicitly opened or closed.

INPUT PROCEDURE and USING are mutually exclusive. If USING is used,

then
file1 and files should not be opened or READ explicitly. If INPUT
PROCEDURE is used then File1 and file2 need to be OPENed and READ the
records one by one until end of the file and pass the required records
to
sort-work-file using the command RELEASE.
Syntax: RELEASE sort-work-record from input-file-record.
OUTPUT Procedure and GIVING are mutually exclusive. If GIVING is used,
then file3 should not be opened or WRITE explicitly. If OUTPUT
procedure
is used, then File3 should be OPENed and the required records from sort
work file should be RETURNed to it. Once AT END is reached for
sort-work-file, close the output file.
Syntax: RETURN sort-work-file-name AT END imperative statement.

INPUT PROCEDURE Vs OUTPUT PROCEDURE:

Sometimes it would be more efficient to process data before it is

sorted,
whereas other times it is more efficient to process after it is sorted.
If
we intend to eliminate more records, then it would be better preprocess
them before feeding to SORT. If we want to eliminate all the records
having spaces in the key field then it would be efficient if we
eliminate
them after sorting. Because the records with blank key comes first
after
sorting.

MERGE

It is same as sort. USING is mandatory. There should be minimum two

files
in USING.
MERGE Sort-work-file ON ASCENDING KEY dataname1 dataname2
USING file1 file2
 GIVING file3 / OUTPUT PROCEDURE is section-1
END-MERGE

Program sort registers (and its equivalent DFSORT parameter/meaning)

SORT-FILE-SIZE (FILSZ), SORT-CORE-SIZE (RESINV), SORT-MSG(MSGDDN)

SORT-MODE-SIZE (SMS=nnnnn)
SORT-RETURN(return-code of sort) and
SORT-CONTROL (Names the file of control card – default is IGZSRTCD)
STRING MANIPULATION
A string refers to a sequence of characters. String manipulation
operations include finding a particular character/sub-string in a
string,
replacing particular character/sub-string in a string, concatenating
strings and segmenting strings.
All these functions are handled by three verbs INSPECT, STRING and
UNSTRING in COBOL. EXAMINE is the obsolete version of INSPECT supported
in
COBOL74.

INSPECT- FOR COUNTING

It is used to tally the occurrence of a single character or groups of
characters in a data field.

INSPECT identifier-1 TALLYING identifier-2 FOR

ALL|LEADING literal-1|identifier-3
[BEFORE|AFTER INITIAL identifier-4|literal-2]

- Optional.

INSPECT identifier-1 TALLYING identifier-2 FOR

CHARACTERS
[BEFORE|AFTER INITIAL identifier-4|literal-2]

- Optional.

Main String is identifier-1 and count is stored in identifier-2.

Literal-1
or Identifier-3 is a character or group-of-characters you are looking
in
the main-string.
INSPECT further qualifies the search with BEFORE and AFTER of the
initial
occurrence of identifier-4 or literal-2.
 Example:
WS-NAME – ‘MUTHU SARAVANA SURYA CHANDRA DEVI’
INSPECT WS-NAME TALLYING WS-COUNT ALL ‘S’

BEFORE INITIAL ‘SARAVANA’ AFTER INITIAL ‘CHANDRA’

END-INSPECT
Result: WS-COUNT contains – 1

INSPECT- FOR REPLACING

It is used to replace the occurrence of a single character or groups of
characters in a data field.

INSPECT identifier-1 REPLACING

ALL|LEADING literal-1|identifier-2 BY identifier-3|literal-2
[BEFORE|AFTER INITIAL identifier-4|literal-2]

- Optional.
INSPECT identifier-1 REPLCING CHARACTERS
BY identifier-2 BEFORE|AFTER INITIAL identifier-3|literal-1

INSPECT-FOR COUNTING AND REPLACING

It is a combination of the above two methods.
INSPECT identifier-1 TALLYING <tallying part > REPLACING <replacing
part>

STRING
STRING command is used to concatenate one or more strings.
Syntax:STRING identifier-1 / literal-1, identifier-2/ literal-2

DELIMITED BY (identifier-3/literal-3/SIZE)
INTO identifier-4
END-STRING.

01 VAR1 PIC X(10) VALUE ‘MUTHU ‘

01 VAR2 PIC X(10) VALUE ‘SARA
‘
01 VAR2 PIC X(20).
To get display ‘MUTHU,SARA’
STRING VAR1 DELIMITED BY ‘ ‘
‘,’ DELIMITED BY SIZE
VAR2 DELIMITED BY ‘ ‘
INTO VAR3

END-STRING.
The receiving field must be an elementary data item with no editing
symbols and JUST RIGHT clause.
With STRING statement, specific characters of a string can be replaced
whereas MOVE replaces the full string.
01 AGE-OUT PIC X(12) VALUE ’12 YEARS OLD’.
STRING ‘18’ DELIMITED BY SIZE INTO AGE-OUT. => 18 YEARS OLD.

Reference Modification – equivalent of SUBSTR

‘Reference modification’ is used to retrieve or overwrite a sub-string
of
a string. ‘:’ is known as reference modification operator.

Syntax: String(Starting-Position:Length)
MOVE ‘18’ TO AGE-OUT(1:2) does the same as what we did with STRING
command.
When it is used in array elements, the syntax is
Array-element (occurrence) (Starting-Position:Length)

UNSTRING
UNSTRING command is used to split one string to many strings.
Syntax:

UNSTRING identifier-1
[DELIMITED BY (ALL/) identifier2/literal1 [,OR (ALL/)
(identifier-3/literal-2),..]]
INTO identifier-4 [,DELIMITER IN identifier-5, COUNT IN
identifier-6]
[,identifier-7 [,DELIMITER IN identifier-8, COUNT IN
identifier-9]
01 WS-DATA PIC X(12) VALUE ‘10/200/300/1’.
UNSTRING WS-DATA DELIMITED BY ‘/’
INTO WS-FLD1 DELIMITER IN WS-D1 COUNT IN WS-C1
WS-FLD2 DELIMITER IN WS-D2 COUNT IN WS-C2

WS-FLD3 DELIMITER IN WS-D3 COUNT IN WS-C3

END-UNSTRING.
Result:
WS-FLD1 = 10 WS-FLD2 =200 WS-FLD3=300
WS-C1 = 2 WS-C2=3 WS-C3=3 WS-D1 = ‘/’ WS-D2=’/’ WS-D3 ‘/’
ON OVERFLOW can be coded with STRING and UNSTRING. If there is STRING
truncation then the imperative statements followed ON OVERFLOW will be
executed.

COPY Statement
A COPY statement is used to bring a series of prewritten COBOL entries
that have been stored in library, into a program.
1.Common routines like error routine, date validation routine are coded
in
a library and bring into the program by COPY.

2. Master files are used in multiple programs. Their layout can be

placed
in one copybook and be placed wherever the files are used. It promotes
program standardization since all the programs share the same layout
and
the same data names.

This reduces coding and debugging time. Change in layout needs change
in
copybook only. It is enough if we just recompile the program for making
the new copy effective.

Syntax:COPY copybook-name [(OF/IN) library name]

[REPLACING string-to-be-replaced BY replacing-string]

Copybooks are stored as members in PDS library and during compilation

time, they are included into the program. By default, the copybook
library
is SYSLIB and it can be changed using IN or OF of COPY statement.

Copybooks can be used in the following paragraphs.

SOURCE-COMPUTER, OBJECT-COMPUTER, SPECIAL-NAMES, FILE-CONTROL,
IO-CONTROL,
FD SECTION, PARAGRAPHS IN PROCEDURE DIVISION.

If the same copybook is used more than once in the program, then there
will be “duplicate data declaration” error during compilation, as all
the
fields are declared twice. In this case, one copybook can be used with
REPLACING verb to replace high-level qualifier of the all the variables
with another qualifier.

Example:
COPY CUSTOMER REPLACING ‘CUST1-‘ BY ‘CUST2-‘.

Delimiter ‘= =’ should be used for replacing pseudo texts. The

replacing
option does not alter the prewritten entries in the library; the
changes
are made to the user’s source program only.
CALL statement (Sub-Programs)
When a specific functionality need to be performed in more than one
program, it is best to write them separately and call them into each
program. Sub Programs can be written in any programming language. They
are
typically written in a language best suited to the specific task
required
and thus provide greater flexibility.

Main Program Changes:

CALL statement is used for executing the sub-program from the main
program. A sample of CALL statement is given below:
CALL ‘PGM2’ USING BY REFERENCE WS-VAR1, BY CONTENT WS-

VAR2.
PGM2 is called here. WS-VAR1 and WS-VAR2 are working storage items.
WS-VAR1 is passed by reference. WS-VAR2 is passed by Content. BY
REFERENCE
is default in COBOL and need not be coded. BY CONTENT LENGTH phrase
permits the length of data item to be passed to a called program.

Sub-Program Changes:
WS-VAR1 and WS-VAR2 are working storage items of main program.
As we have already mentioned, the linkage section is used for accessing
external elements. As these working storage items are owned by main
program, to access them in the sub-program, we need to define them in
the
linkage section.

LINKAGE SECTION.
01 LINKAGE SECTION.
05 LK-VAR1 PIC 9(04).
05 LK-VAR2 PIC 9(04).
In addition to define them in linkage section, the procedure division
should be coded with these data items for address-ability.
PROCEDURE DIVISION USING LK-VAR1,LK-VAR2

There is a one-one correspondence between passed elements and received

elements (Call using, linkage and procedure division using) BY
POSITION.
This implies that the name of the identifiers in the called and calling
program need not be the same (WS-VAR1 & LK-VAR1) but the number of
elements and picture clause should be same.
The last statement of your sub-program should be EXIT PROGRAM. This
returns the control back to main program. GOBACK can also be coded
instead
of EXIT PROGRAM but not STOP RUN. EXIT PROGRAM should be the only
statement in a paragraph in COBOL74 whereas it can be coded along with
other statements in a paragraph in COBOL85.

PROGRAM-ID. <Program-name> IS INITIAL PROGRAM.

If IS INITIAL PROGRAM is coded along with program-id of sub program,

then
the program will be in initial stage every time it is called (COBOL85
feature).
Alternatively CANCEL issued after CALL, will set the sub-program to

initial state.

If the sub program is modified then it needs to be recompiled. The need

for main program recompilation is decided by the compiler option used
for
the main program. If the DYNAM compiler is used, then there is no need
to
recompile the main program. The modified subroutine will be in effect
during the run. NODYNAM is default that expects the main program
recompilation.

Difference between Pass-by-reference and Pass-by-content

Sl # Passl By Reference Pass By Content
1
CALL ‘sub1’ USING BY REFERENCE WS-VAR1 CALL ‘sub1’ USING BY

CONTENT
WS-VAR1(BY CONTENT keyword is needed)
2

It is default in COBOL. BY REFERENCE is not needed. BY CONTENT key

word
is mandatory to pass an element by value.
3

Address of WS-VAR1 is passed

Value of WS-VAR1 is passed
4
 The sub-program modifications on the passed elements are visible in
the
main program.

The sub-program modifications on the passed elements are

local to that sub-program and not visible in the main program.
Difference between Static Call and Dynamic Call
Sl # STATIC Call DYNAMIC Call
1

Identified by Call literal.Ex: CALL ‘PGM1’.Identified by Call

variable
and the variable should be populated at run time.01 WS-PGM PIC
X(08).Move

‘PGM1’ to WS-PGMCALL WS-PGM

2
Default Compiler option is NODYNAM and so all the literal calls are
considered as static calls.

If you want convert the literal calls

into
DYNAMIC, the program should be compiled with DYNAM option. By default,
call variables and any un-resolved calls are considered as dynamic.
3.

If the subprogram undergoes change, sub program and main program

need
to be recompiled.

If the subprogram undergoes change, recompilation of

subprogram is enough.
4

Sub modules are link edited with main module.

Sub modules are picked

up
during run time from the load library.

5
Size of load module will be large
Size of load module will be less.
6
Fast Slow compared to Static call.
7
Less flexible. More flexible.
8

Sub-program will not be in initial stage the next time it is called unless you explicitly use
INITIAL or you do a CANCEL after each call. Program will be in initial state every time it is called.

INTRINSIC FUNCTIONS:
LENGTH

Returns the length of the PIC clause. Used for finding length of
group
item that spanned across multiple levels.
MAX

Returns the content of the argument that contains the maximum

value
MIN

Returns the content of the argument that contains the minimum

value
NUMVAL

Returns the numeric value represented by an alphanumeric

character
string specified in the argument.
NUMVAL-C Same as NUMVAL but currency and decimal points are ignored
during
conversion.
CURRENT Returns 21 Chars alphanumeric value –YYYYMMDDHHMMSSnnnnnn

DATE

INTEGER OF DATE Returns INTEGER equivalent of Gregorian date passed.

INTEGER OF DAY Returns INTEGER equivalent of Julian date passed.
DATE OF INTEGER Returns Gregorian date for the integer passed.
DAY OF INTEGER Returns Julian date for the integer passed.

Note: FUNCTION INTEGER OF DATE (01-01-1601) returns 1.

FILE HANDLING

A data file is collection of relevant records and a record is

collection
of relevant fields. The file handling in COBOL program involves five
steps.
Steps in file-handing

1.Allocation: The files used in the program should be declared in

FILE-CONTROL paragraph of environment division. The mapping with JCL
DDNAME is done here. The file is allocated to your program by this

statement.

2.Definition. The layout of the file and its attributes are defined in
the
FILE SECTION of DATA DIVISION.

3.Open: Dataset is connected/readied to your program using OPEN

statement.
The mode of OPEN decides the operation allowed and the initial pointer
in
the dataset. For example, EXTEND mode allows only write access and the
pointer is kept on the end of file to append.

4.Process: Process the file as per requirement, using the I-O

statements
provided by COBOL. (READ, WRITE, REWRITE and DELETE)

5. Close: After the processing, close the file to disconnect it from

the
program.

Allocation of file - SELECT Statement

(ENVIRONMENT-> INPUT-OUTPUT-> FILE-CONTROL)
SELECT [OPTIONAL] FILENAME ASSIGN to DDNAME
=>ALL Files
ORGANIZATION IS SEQUENTIAL/INDEXED/RELATIVE
=>ALL Files
ACCESS IS SEQUNETIAL/RANDOM/DYNAMIC
=>ALL Files
RECORD KEY IS FILE-KEY1
=>KSDS
RELATIVE KEY IS WS-RRN
=>RRDS
ALTERNARE RECORD KEY IS FILE-KEY2 WITH DUPLICATES
=>KSDS with
ALTERNARE RECORD KEY IS FILE-KEY3 WITHOUT DUPLICATES
=>AIX
FILE STATUS IS WS-FILE-STAT1
=>ALL Files
[,WS-FILE-STAT2]
=>VSAM
Files
SELECT Statement- OPTIONAL Clause

This can be coded only for input files. If OPTIONAL is not coded, then
the input file is expected to present in JCL. If not, an execution
error

will occur.
If OPTIONAL is coded, then if the file is not mapped in JCL, it is
considered as empty file and the first read results end of file.
The file can also be dynamically allocated instead of static allocation
in
JCL.

SELECT Statement- ASSIGN TO

FILENAME is the logical name used inside the program and DDNAME is the
logical name in the JCL, mapped with physical dataset. DDNAME can be
prefixed with ‘S-‘ to indicate QSAM file, ‘-AS’ to indicate ESDS file
and
with no prefix to indicate KSDS/RRDS file.

JCL Step executing the program should have a dataset with DDNAME as
label
//DDNAME DD DSN=BPMAIN.EMPLOYEE.DATA,DISP=SHR
SELECT Statement-ORGANIZATION
It can be SEQUENTIAL (PS or VSAM ESDS), INDEXED (VSAM KSDS), RELATIVE
(VSAM RRDS). Default is Sequential.

SELECT Statement-ACCESS MODE

SEQUENTIAL.
It is default access mode and it is used to access the records ONLY in
sequential order. To read 100th record, first 99 records need to be
read
and skipped.

RANDOM.

Records can be randomly accessed in the program using the

primary/alternate key of indexed file organization or relative record
number of relative organization.100th record can directly be read after
getting the address of the record from the INDEX part for INDEXED
files.100th record can directly be read for RELATIVE files even without
any index.
DYNAMIC.

It is mixed access mode where the file can be accessed in random as

well
as sequential mode in the program.
Example: Reading the details of all the employees between 1000-2000.
First
randomly access 1000th employee record, then read sequentially till
2000th
employee record. START and READ NEXT commands are used for this purpose

in
the procedure division.

SELECT Statement-RECORD KEY IS

It is primary key of VSAM KSDS file. It should be unique and part of
indexed record structure.

SELECT Statement-ALTERNATE RECORD KEY IS

This phrase is used for KSDS files defined with AIX. Add the clause
WITH
DUPLICATES if the AIX is defined with duplicates.
Referring to VSAM basics, every alternate index record has an
associated
PATH and the path should be allocated in the JCL that invokes this
program.
The DDNAME of the path should be DDNAME of the base cluster suffixed
with
1 for the first alternate record clause, suffixed with n for nth
ALTERNATE
RECORD KEY clause in SELECT clause.

SELECT Statement-FILE STATUS IS WS-FILE-STAT1,WS-FILE-STAT2

WS-FILE-STAT1 should be defined as PIC X(02) in working storage
section.
After every file operation, the file status should be checked for
allowable values.
WS-FILE-STAT2 can be coded for VSAM files to get the VSAM return code
(2
bytes), VSAM function-code (1 byte) and VSAM feedback code (3 bytes).
This is a 6- byte field in working storage.

RESERVE Clause.
RESERVE clause [RESERVE integer AREA ] can be coded in the SELECT
statement. The number of buffers to be allocated for the file is coded
here.
By default two buffers will be allocated if the clause is not coded.
Since
similar option is available in JCL, this is not coded in program.

RESERVE 1 AREA allocates one buffer, for the file in the SELECT
statement.
Defining the file in FILE SECTION - FD

FD FILENAME
RECORDING MODE IS V/VB/F/FB
RECORD CONTAINS M CHARACTERS (TO N CHARACTERS)
BLOCK CONTAINS X CHARACTERS/RECORDS (TO Y
CHARACTERS/RECORDS)

LABEL RECORDS ARE OMITTED/STANDARD

DATA RECORD IS FILE-RECORD.
01 FILE-RECORD PIC X(nnn).

FD-RECORD CONTAINS
It specifies the length of the record in terms of bytes. (It will be
RECORD contains m to n CHARACTERS for variable format files)

FD-BLOCK CONTAINS
It specifies the physical record size. It can be mentioned as number of
logical records OR number of characters, that is multiple of logical
record length. It is suggested to code BLOCK CONTAINS 0 RECORDS so that
system will decide the optimum size for the file based on the device
used
for storing the file. BLOCK CONTAINS clause is treated as comments for
VSAM files.

Advantage of Blocking:
1.I-O time is reduced as n numbers of records are read into main memory
buffer during an I-O.
2.Inter record gap is removed and the gap exist only between blocks. So
memory wastage due to IRG is avoided.

FD-RECORDING MODE IS
It can be F (FIXED) V(VARIABLE) FB(FIXED BLOCK) VB(VARIABLE BLOCKED)
Variable record file identification:
If there is no recording mode/record contains clause, it is still
possible
to identify variable length records. If there is an OCCURS depending on
clause or there are multiple 01 levels and every 01 level is of
different
size, then the file would be of variable length. Multiple 01 level in
File
section is an example for implicit redefinition.

FD-LABEL RECORDS Clause

As a general rule, LABEL RECORDS are STANDARD is coded for Disk and
Tape

files, LABEL RECORDS ARE OMITTED is coded for printer files. In

COBOL74,
this clause is a mandatory clause whereas COBOL85 made this as

optional.
FD-DATA RECORD IS Clause

It is used to name the data record(s) of the file. More than one
record
can be coded here.

OPEN STATEMENT
Syntax:
OPEN OPENMODE FILENAME
OPENMODE can be INPUT OUTPUT I-O EXTEND
INPUT
- File can be used ONLY-FOR-READ purpose.
OUTPUT
- File can be used ONLY-FOR-WRITE purpose.
I-O
- File can be used FOR READ, WRITE and REWRITE purpose.
EXTEND
- File can be used FOR appending records using WRITE.
CLOSE statement.

The used files are closed using CLOSE statement. If you don’t close the
files, the completion of the program closes all the files used in the
program.
Syntax:

CLOSE FILENAME

OPEN and CLOSE for TAPE files - Advanced

If more than one file is stored in a reel of tape, it is called as
multi-file volume. When one file is stored in more than one reel of
tape,
it is called as
multi-volume label. One reel is known as one volume. When the end of
one
volume is reached, automatically the next volume opens. So there is no
special control is needed for multi volume files.

OPEN INPUT file-1 [WITH NO REWIND | REVERSED]

OPEN OUTPUT file-2 [WITH NO REWIND]
CLOSE file-3 [{REEL|UNIT} [WITH NO REWIND| FOR REMOVAL]
CLOSE file-3 [WITH NO REWIND|LOCK]

UNIT and REEL are synonyms.

After opening a TAPE file, the file is positioned at its beginning.
When
opening the file if the clause REVERSED is coded, then the file can be
read in the REVERESE direction. (Provided hardware supports this
feature)

When you close the file, the tape is normally rewound. The NO REWIND
clause specifies that the TAPE should be left in its current position.

CLOSE statement with REEL option closes the current reel alone. So the
next READ will get the first record of next REEL. This will be useful
when
you want skip all the records in the first reel after n number of
records
processing.

Since TAPE is sequential device, if you create multiple files in the

same
TAPE, then before opening the second file, first file should be closed.
At
any point of time, you can have only one file is active in the program.
In
addition to this, you have to code MULTIPLE FILE clause in the I-O
control
paragraph of environment division.
MULTIPLE FILE TAPE CONTAINS

OUT-FILE1 POSITION 1
OUT-FILE3 POSITION 3.
The files OUT-FILE1 and OUT-FILE3 used in the program are part of a
same
TAPE and they exist in first and third position in the tape.
Alternatively, this information can be passed from JCL using LABEL
parameter.

READ statement
READ statement is used to read the record from the file.
Syntax:

READ FILENAME [INTO ws-record] [KEY IS FILE-KEY1]

[AT END/INVALID KEY imperative statement1]
[NOT AT END/NOT INVALID KEY imperative statement2]

END-READ
If INTO clause is coded, then the file is directly read into working
storage section record. It is preferred as it avoids another move of
file-section-record to working-storage-record followed by simple READ.

READ-INTO is not preferred for variable size records where the length
of
the record being read is not known.
KEY IS clause is used while accessing a record randomly using
primary/alternate record key.
AT END and NOT AT END are used during sequential READ of the file.
INVALID KEY and NOT INVALID KEY are used during random read of the
file.
Before accessing the file randomly, the key field should have a value
before READ.

WRITE Statement
Write statement is used to write a new record in the file. If the file
is
opened in EXTEND mode, the record will be appended. If the file is
opened
in OUTPUT mode, the record will be added at the current position.

Syntax:
WRITE FILE-RECORD [FROM ws-record]
[INVALID KEY imperative statement1]
END-WRITE
FROM clause avoids the explicit move of working storage record to file
section record before WRITE.

REWRITE Statement
REWRITE is used to update an already read record. To update a record in
afile, the file should be opened in I-O mode.
Syntax:
REWRITE FILE-RECORD [FROM ws-record]
[INVALID KEY imperative statement1]
END-REWRITE
START Statement

START is used with dynamic access mode of indexed files. It establishes

the current location in the cluster for READ NEXT statement. START
itself
does not retrieve any record.
Syntax:

START FILENAME
KEY is EQUAL TO/NOT LESS THAN/GREATER THAN
key-name
[INVALID KEY imperative statement1]
END-START.
DELETE Statement
DELETE is used to delete the most recently read record in the file. To
delete a record, the file should be opened in I-O mode.
Syntax:

DELETE FILENAME RECORD

[INVALID KEY imperative statement1]
END-DELETE

File Error – Handling

There are chances for failure of any file I-O processing. The failure
of
an I-O operation can be accepted or cannot be tolerated. The severity
of
failure has to be defined in the program design stage.

Let us assume that we don’t have any error handling in our program. In
this case, for example, if you don’t have a specific record in the
file,
the random read of that record would immediately terminate the program
with error ‘record not found’.

Error Handling Clauses Provided by COBOL.

The sudden termination can be avoided by handling this error, with
INVALID
KEY clause of READ. Based on the importance of the record and business
rule, we can continue our program with next record or terminate the
program properly.
AT END is another error handling clause provided by COBOL. But there is
no
way to handle all such errors in this way.

Assign file-status and take the responsibility.

The second method is, assigning file-status to the file in the SELECT
clause and checks the file status after each and every I-O and ensures
that the value of status code is one of the allowable values. If it is
not
an allowable return code, then abnormally end the program with error
statements that would be easier to debug.
But we have to do this checking after each and every I-O operation.
This is MOST PREFERRED ERROR HANDLING METHOD in structured
programming.

Declaratives – USE statement

COBOL provides an option to group all the possible errors of specific
operation(s) in a place and that will be automatically invoked during
the
respective operation(s) of any file. This avoids redundant code.
This is done in DECLARATIVE section of the procedure division.
DECLARATIVE
should be the first section in the procedure division if coded.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
DECLARATIVES.
USE-PROCEDURE SECTION.

USE AFTER EXCEPTION PROCEDURE ON INPUT

ERROR-PROCEDURE.

Check the file-status code for validity.

END-DECLARATIVES.
Whenever there is an error in the processing of ANY FILE opened in
INPUT
mode, then the control comes to ERROR-PROCEDURE. The validity of error
should be checked in this paragraph and allow or restrict the process
down, based on severity of error code.

The complete syntax of USE statements is:

USE AFTER STANDARD ERROR|EXCEPTION PROCEDURE ON
INPUT|OUTPUT|I-O|EXTEND| file-1
If INPUT is coded, the following procedure will be executed for every
operation involved in any file that is opened in INPUT mode. OUTPUT,
I-O
and EXTEND have the same meaning but the mode is different.
If file name (file-1) is coded in the USE statement, then all the
input-output operation of that specific file will be checked.
ERROR and EXCEPTION are synonyms.
The Procedure written in a DECLARATIVE section should not refer to any
non-declarative procedure written after the end procedure and
vice-versa.

I-O-CONTROL - SAME AREA AND SAME RECORD AREA

RESERVE clause of SELECT statement specifies the number of buffers to

be
allocated for a file. SAME AREA allows more than one file to use the
same
buffer area. This will be very useful when the program must work with a
limited memory space. But the problem is only one file should be open
at a
time if SAME AREA is coded.
Syntax: SAME AREA FOR file-1 file-2 file-3.

If SAME RECORD AREA is coded, then the buffer is not shared but only
the
record area is shared. So more than one file can be in open state. We
should be careful while filling in the record area of the output file.
This may destroy the record read most recently.
Syntax: SAME RECORD AREA FOR file-1 file-2 file-3.

SAME SORT AREA allows more than one sort/merge work files to use the

same
area. The sort work files are automatically allocated when file is
opened
and de-allocated when file is closed. As the sort file is
automatically
opened and closed during a SORT and two sort files cannot be opened at
atime, this clause may not be useful.

Syntax: SAME SORT|SORT-MERGE AREA for file-1 file-2.

File-1 or file-2 should be a SD file.
I-O CONTROL- RERUN Clause

RERUN ON rescue FOR EVERY integer RECORDS on file-1

This will cause checkpoint to be taken for every interger-1 records
processing of
file-1. If the program ABENDED before the complete processing of the
file-1, then the program will restart from integer+1ST record instead
of
first record. The rescue file details should be mentioned outside the
program and it varies from installation to installation.

ENTRY statement

ENTRY statement establishes an alternate ENTRY point in a COBOL called

sub-program. When a CALL statement naming the alternate entry point is
executed in a calling program, control is transferred to the next
executable statement following the entry statement. Except when a CALL
statement refers to an entry name, the ENTRY statements are ignored at
run-time.

Matching Logic
If you have been given two files of similar type, say master and
transaction file and you are requested to update the master file with
transaction file information for existing records and prepare a report
of
new transactions and deleted transactions, then you should go for what
is
called Matching logic. This is also known as co-sequential processing.

Sort both the files on key and compare the keys. If the keys are
matching
then update the file. If you find any record that is found in
transaction
but not in master file, then that is new addition and the reverse is
deletion. If the master key is greater than transaction key, then that
corresponds to the first case and reverse is the second case.

This can be easily done in JCL using ICETOOL. Refer JCL section.
FILE STATUS CODES

It is a two-byte working storage item. The first byte denotes the

general
category whereas second byte denotes the particular type of error
message
under that category.

0
Successful OPEN/READ/WRITE Operation
0
Successful completion
2
Duplicate key was detected which is allowed as per definition of
AIX.
4
Length of record just READ didn’t conform to the fixed length
attributes for the file.
5
Referenced Optional file is not present during OPEN. If open mode is
I-O or EXTEND, then file will be created.
7

Open or Close statement is executed with a phrase that implies a

tape
file (ex NO REWIND) whereas the file is not in TAPE.
1

When AT END condition fails

0
Sequential READ is attempted on1.after the end of file is
reached2.optional file that is not present.
4

Sequential READ was attempted for a relative file and RRN is larger
than the maximum that can be stored in the relative key data item.
0

When INDEX Key fails

1
Sequence error exists for sequentially accessed index file.
2
Attempt was made to write a record that would create a duplicate
key.
3
Record not found.(for keyed random access)
4
Space not found for WRITE
3
Permanent Open error
5
Opening a non-optional file that was not present.
7
Open mode is not permitted.
8
Open issued for a file that was closed previously with lock
9
File attribute mismatch-Open failed.
4
Logic error in opening/closing/deleting
1
OPEN a opened file.
2
CLOSE attempted for not opened file.
3
IO statement before the current REWRITE/DELETE is not successful.
4
REWRITE attempt with invalid length
7
READ file which is not opened in INPUT or I-O mode
8
WRITE file which is not opened in I-O OUPUT or EXTEND mode
9
DELETE or REWRITE file which is not opened in I-O mode.
9
Implementation defined
1
VSAM password error
2
Logic error
3
VSAM resource unavailable
6
No DD statement specified for VSAM file.
7
File integrity verified for VSAM file.
COBOL COMPILATION

SYSPRINT
PARM (Compiler listing)
(Compiler

Options)
SYSIN
SYSLIN(Object Module)
(Source)
SYSLIB
PARM
(Copybook Library) (Link
edit Options)
SYSLMOD
(Load Module)
SYSPRINT
SYSLIB
(Link edit messages) (Subroutine Library)

COMPILATION JCL:
//SMSXL86B JOB ,'COMPILATION JCL',
MSGCLASS=Q,MSGLEVEL=(1,1),CLASS=C

//COMPILE1 EXEC PGM=IGYCRCTL,

PARM=’XREF,APO,ADV,MAP,LIST),REGION=0M
//STEPLIB
DD DSN=SYS1.COB2LIB,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN
DD DSN=SMSXL86.TEST.COBOL(SAMPGM01),DISP=SHR
//SYSLIB
DD DSN=SMSXL86.COPYLIB,DISP=SHR
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSLIN
DD DSN=&&LOADSET,
DCB=(RECFM=FB,LRECL=80,BLKSIZE=3200),
//
DISP=(NEW,PASS),UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(5,10),RLSE),
//SYSUT1
DD UNIT=&SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,10)) => Code SYSUT2 to UT7
//LINKEDT1 EXEC PGM=IEWL,COND=(4,LT)
//SYSLIN
DD DSN=&&LOADSET, DISP=(OLD,DELETE)
//SYSLMOD DD
DSN=&&GOSET(SAMPGM01),DISP=(NEW,PASS),UNIT=SYSDA
//
SPACE=(CYL,1,1,1))
//SYSLIB
DD DSN=SMSXL86.LOADLIB,DISP=SHR
//SYSUT1
DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,10))
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//*** EXECUTE THE PROGRAM ***
//EXECUTE1 EXEC PGM=*.LINKEDT1.SYSLMOD,COND=(4,LT),REGION=0M
//STEPLIB
DD DSN=SMSXL86.LOADLIB,DISP=SHR
//
DD DSN=SYS1.SCEERUN,DISP=SHR
//SYSOUT
DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*

Compiler Options
The default options that were set up when your compiler was installed
are
in effect for your program unless you override them with other options.

To

check the default compiler options of your installation, do a compile

and
check in the compilation listing.

Ways of overriding the default options

1.Compiler options can be passed to COBOL Compiler Program (IGYCRCTL)
through the PARM in JCL.
2.PROCESS or CBL statement with compiler options, can be placed before
the
identification division.
3.If the organization uses any third party product or its own utility
then
these options can be coded in the pre-defined line of the utility
panel.

Precedence of Compiler Options

1.

(Highest precedence). Installation defaults, fixed by the

installation.
2.

Options coded on PROCESS /CBL statement

3.
Options coded on JCL PARM parameters
4.

(Lowest Precedence). Installation defaults, but not fixed.

The complete list of compiler option is in the table:

Aspect

Compiler Option
Source Language

APOST, CMPR2, CURRENCY, DBCS, LIB, NUMBER,QUOTE,

SEQUENCE,
WORD
Date Processing

DATEPROC, INTDATE, YEARWINDOW

Maps and Listing

LANGUAGE, LINECOUNT, LIST, MAP, OFFSET, SOURCE,

SPACE,
TERMINAL, VBREF, XREF
Object Deck generation
 COMPILE, DECK, NAME, OBJECT, PGMNAME
Object Code Control ADV, AWO, DLL, EXPORTALL, FASTSRT, OPTIMIZE,
NUMPROC,
OUTDD, TRUNC, ZWB
Debugging

DUMP, FLAG, FLAGMIG, FLAGSTD, SSRANGE, TYPECHK

Other ADATA, ANALYZE, EXIT, IDLGEN

ADV: It is meaningful if your program has any printer files with

WRITE..ADVANCING keyword. The compiler adds one byte prefix to the
original LRECL of printer files for printing control purpose. If you
are
manually populating printing control character in the program, then you
can compile your program with NOADV.

DYNAM: Use DYNAM to cause separately compiled programs invoked through

the
CALL literal statement to be loaded dynamically at run time. DYNAM
causes
dynamic loads (for CALL) and deletes (for CANCEL) of separately
compiled
programs at object time. Any CALL identifier statements that cannot be
resolved in your program are also treated as dynamic calls. When you
specify DYNAM, RESIDENT is also put into effect.

LIST/OFFSET: LIST and OFFSET are mutually exclusive. If you use both,
LIST will be ignored. LIST is used to produce listing a listing of the
assembler language expansion of your code. OFFSET is used to produce a
condensed Procedure Division listing.
With OFFSET, the procedure portion of the listing will contain line

numbers, statement references, and the location of the first

instruction
generated for each statement. These options are useful for solving
system
ABENDS. Refer JCL session for more details.

MAP: Use MAP to produce a listing of the items you defined in the
Data
Division.

SSRANGE: If the program is compiled with SSRANGE option, then any

attempt to refer an area outside the region of the table will
abnormally
terminate with protection exception, usually S0C4.It also avoids any
meaningless operation on reference modification like negative number in
the starting position of reference modification expression. If the
program
is compiled with NOSSRANGE, then the program may proceed further with
junk
or irrelevant data. So usually the programs are compiled with SSRANGE
during development and testing.

RENT: A program compiled as RENT is generated as a reentrant object

module. CICS programs should be compiled with RENT option to share the
same copy of the program by multiple transactions (Multithreading)

RESIDENT: Use the RESIDENT option to request the COBOL Library

Management Feature. (The COBOL Library Management Feature causes most
COBOL library routines to be located dynamically at run time, instead
of
being link-edited with the COBOL program.).CICS Programs should be
compiled with RESIENT option.

XREF: Use XREF to get a sorted cross-reference listing. EBCDIC

data-names
and procedure-names will be listed in alphanumeric order. It also
includes listing, where all the data-names that are referenced within
your
program and the line number where they are defined. This is useful for
identifying the fields that are defined but not used anywhere after the
development of new program.

TSO Commands from COBOL program

CBL APOST,NODECK,OBJECT,BUF(10000),DYNAM
=> Compiler option
override
******************************************************************
* FUNCTION = This sample program demonstrates how to invoke
*
*
TSO commands from a COBOL program using
*
*
standard TSO services as documented in the
*
*
TSO/E Programming Services manual.
*******************************************************************
Identification Division.
Program-ID. SMSTSOEV.
Data Division.
Working-Storage Section.
01 Filler.
05 ws-dummy

Pic s9(8) Comp. 05 ws-return-code Pic s9(8) Comp. 05 ws-reason-code Pic s9(8)
Comp. 05 ws-info-code Pic s9(8) Comp. 05 ws-cppl-address Pic s9(8) Comp. 05 ws-flags

Pic X(4) Value X'00010001'.

05 ws-buffer
Pic X(256).
05 ws-length
Pic s9(8) Comp Value 256.
Procedure Division.
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
*
Call IKJTSOEV to create the TSO/E environment
**----------------------------------------------------------------*
CALL 'IKJTSOEV' Using
ws-dummy,ws-return-code,ws-reason-code,
ws-info-code,ws-cppl-address.
IF ws-return-code > zero
DISPLAY 'IKJTSOEV Failed, Return-code=' ws-return-code
' Reason-code=' ws-reason-code
'Info-code=' ws-info-code
MOVE ws-return-code to Return-code
STOP RUN.
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
*
Build the TSO/E command in ws-buffer
**----------------------------------------------------------------*
MOVE 'ALLOCATE DD(SYSPUNCH) SYSOUT HOLD' to ws-buffer.
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
* Call the TSO/E Service Routine to execute the TSO/E command
**----------------------------------------------------------------*
CALL 'IKJEFTSR' Using ws-flags,ws-buffer,ws-length
ws-return-code,ws-reason-code,ws-dummy.
IF ws-return-code > zero
DISPLAY 'IKJEFTSR Failed, Return-code=' ws-return-code
' Reason-code=' ws-reason-code
MOVE ws-return-code to Return-code
STOP RUN.
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
*
Check that the ALLOCATE command worked
**----------------------------------------------------------------*
DISPLAY 'ALLOCATE Worked ! ' Upon Syspunch.
STOP RUN.