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Introduction
Written in a clear, easy to follow format, this book was designed to help you learn COBOL as quickly as possible.
The numerous real-world examples and exercises in this book will help you to understand computer programming, and COBOL in particular. This book provides a complete grounding in the COBOL language. After completing this book, you should be able to write useful and meaningful computer programs using COBOL.
Who Should Read This Book The lessons in this book assume no previous computer programming experience. The lessons can be used as an introduction to COBOL specifically, and computer programming in general. Even experienced COBOL programmers, who want to find out the latest techniques available in the current COBOL standard, will find this book valuable.
This book contains the following special elements that make the presentation clearer and easier to understand:
• New Term Boxes
• Notes
• Tips
• Cautions
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New terms and definitions are explained in New Term boxes. These are introduced throughout the lessons as required by the material being covered.
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Interesting information relating to the discussion is presented in these notes.
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Tips and interesting shortcuts are represented in this manner, for easy recognition. Tips can help make your coding easier and more accurate.
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Common pitfalls and misconceptions are presented as cautions. When a caution appears, you can be assured that the potential problems discussed occur in the real world of COBOL programming.
Throughout the lessons, full and partial examples from actual programs are listed. When a complete program is included in the text, it will be signified with a listing heading. This serves to offset the full program listings from the text. You will often find explanations of the programs embedded in the listings. The listing itself will appear in an easy to identify, monospace font. A simple listing example follows:
Listing Introduction.1 Hello World
000001 @OPTIONS MAIN 000002 Identification Division. 000003 Program-Id. Hello. 000004 Environment Division. 000005 Configuration Section. 000006 Source-Computer. IBM-PC. 000007 Object-Computer. IBM-PC. 000008 Data Division. 000009 Procedure Division. 000010 Hello-Start. 000011 Display “Hello World”. 000012 Stop Run. The lines in the program are numbered so that I can refer to them later in the text, explaining the different elements of the program. The goal is to prevent the code from being unwieldy for the user—that's you!
Q&A and Workshop Following each chapter, you'll find a “Q & A” section, where issues relating to the material covered in the lesson are discussed. Selected areas are reinforced and explanations are expanded.
In the Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours series, usually after the Q&A section, you will find a quiz and a programming exercise. However, to conserve pages, in Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 24 Hours, we have opted to move this information to the CD-ROM accompanying the book. This information is not just extraneous stuff we're adding to beef up the CD. Answering the quiz questions correctly assures you that the material covered has been completely understood. The programming exercises build on the concepts covered in the chapter and require you to make that small, but essential extra leap in understanding to solve the problem. Some are simple modifications of programs discussed within the chapter, whereas others are completely new programs that need to be created. For optimum retention and understanding, I urge you to work through the quiz questions and exercise section as you finish an hour.
Conventions Used in This Book This book uses special typefaces to help you differentiate between text used to explain the concepts, and the elements of the COBOL language. Anytime a reserved COBOL word is used, or a data item is encountered, it will appear in a special monospace font.
The CD-ROM that comes with the book contains the Fujitsu compiler and the third-party GUI screen design tool, COBOL sp2 from Flexus International. In addition, the source code for all the examples and exercises is included. To aid you in understanding the examples, each is accompanied by a Lotus Screencam™ movie, which can be found in the \CAMS directory of the CD-ROM.
Thane Hubbell Bryan, Texas December 1998
COBOL Programming Language, COBOL Source File, COBOL .cbl File Extension, COBOL .cob File Extension, COBOL .cobol File Extension, COBOL Compiler, COBOL Compilation Unit, COBOL Run-time System, COBOL Environment Division, COBOL Identification Division, COBOL Procedure Division, COBOL Data Division, COBOL Configuration Section, COBOL Input-Output Section, COBOL File-Control Paragraph, COBOL I-O Control Paragraph, COBOL File Section, COBOL Working-Storage Section, COBOL Local-Storage Section, COBOL Linkage Section, COBOL Communication Section, COBOL Report Section, COBOL FD Entry (File Descriptor), COBOL SD Entry (Sort Descriptor), COBOL SELECT Statement, COBOL ASSIGN Clause, COBOL ORGANIZATION Clause, COBOL ACCESS MODE, COBOL SEQUENTIAL Access, COBOL RELATIVE Access, COBOL INDEXED Access, COBOL RECORD KEY Clause, COBOL ALTERNATE KEY Clause, COBOL DYNAMIC Access Mode, COBOL RANDOM Access Mode, COBOL KEY IS Clause, COBOL LINAGE Clause, COBOL BLOCK CONTAINS Clause, COBOL RECORD CONTAINS Clause, COBOL RECORDING MODE Clause, COBOL LABEL RECORDS Clause, COBOL CODE-SET Clause, COBOL FILE STATUS Clause, COBOL FD (File Description) Entry, COBOL FILE SECTION Variables, COBOL WORKING-STORAGE Variables, COBOL 01 Level Number, COBOL 77 Level Number, COBOL 66 Level Number, COBOL 88 Level Number (Condition Names), COBOL PIC Clause (Picture), COBOL USAGE Clause, COBOL DISPLAY Usage, COBOL COMP Usage, COBOL COMP-3 (Packed Decimal), COBOL COMP-1 (Floating Point) , COBOL COMP-2 (Floating Double) , COBOL COMP-4 Equivalent to COMP, COBOL COMP-5 (Native Binary) , COBOL SIGN SEPARATE Clause, COBOL SIGN TRAILING Clause, COBOL JUSTIFIED RIGHT Clause, COBOL SYNCHRONIZED Clause, COBOL OCCURS Clause, COBOL OCCURS DEPENDING ON Clause, COBOL REDEFINES Clause, COBOL RENAMES Clause, COBOL VALUE Clause, COBOL VALUE IS Clause, COBOL FILLER Keyword, COBOL ACCEPT Statement, COBOL DISPLAY Statement, COBOL MOVE Statement, COBOL ADD Statement, COBOL SUBTRACT Statement, COBOL MULTIPLY Statement, COBOL DIVIDE Statement, COBOL COMPUTE Statement, COBOL INITIALIZE Statement, COBOL STRING Statement, COBOL UNSTRING Statement, COBOL INSPECT Statement, COBOL PERFORM Statement, COBOL PERFORM UNTIL, COBOL PERFORM VARYING, COBOL PERFORM THRU, COBOL EXIT Statement, COBOL STOP RUN Statement, COBOL GOBACK Statement, COBOL EVALUATE Statement, COBOL WHEN Clause (EVALUATE), COBOL CONTINUE Statement, COBOL NEXT SENTENCE Statement, COBOL IF Statement, COBOL ELSE Clause, COBOL END-IF Statement, COBOL GO TO Statement, COBOL ALTER Statement (Obsolete), COBOL SORT Statement, COBOL MERGE Statement, COBOL RELEASE Statement (for SORT), COBOL RETURN Statement (for SORT), COBOL SEARCH Statement, COBOL SEARCH ALL (Binary Search), COBOL CALL Statement, COBOL CANCEL Statement, COBOL LINKAGE SECTION Variables, COBOL USING Clause (in Procedure Division), COBOL EXIT PROGRAM Statement, COBOL ENTRY Statement (Obsolete), COBOL COPY Statement, COBOL REPLACE Directive, COBOL EJECT Directive, COBOL SKIP Directive, COBOL SERVICE RELOAD (IBM Extension, COBOL INTRINSIC FUNCTIONS, COBOL FUNCTION Keyword, COBOL CURRENT-DATE Function, COBOL NUMVAL Function, COBOL NUMVAL-C Function, COBOL WHEN-COMPILED Function, COBOL RANDOM Function, COBOL REM Function, COBOL LENGTH Function, COBOL MAX Function, COBOL MIN Function, COBOL MOD Function, COBOL SUBSTRING Function, COBOL UPPER-CASE Function, COBOL LOWER-CASE Function, COBOL NATIONAL-OF Function, COBOL DISPLAY-OF Function, COBOL TEST Function (in some compilers, COBOL EXAMINE Statement (Old name of INSPECT), COBOL CLASS Condition, COBOL ALPHABETIC Class Condition, COBOL ALPHANUMERIC Class Condition, COBOL NUMERIC Class Condition, COBOL JUSTIFIED Clause (in PIC), COBOL SYNCHRONIZED Clause repeated, COBOL ON SIZE ERROR Clause, COBOL ON OVERFLOW Clause, COBOL ON EXCEPTION Clause, COBOL INVALID KEY Clause, COBOL END-ADD Statement (in COBOL 2002+, COBOL END-SUBTRACT Statement, COBOL END-MULTIPLY Statement, COBOL END-DIVIDE Statement, COBOL END-COMPUTE Statement, COBOL END-PERFORM Statement, COBOL END-READ Statement, COBOL END-WRITE Statement, COBOL END-REWRITE Statement, COBOL END-DELETE Statement, COBOL END-RETURN Statement, COBOL END-SEARCH Statement, COBOL END-IF repeated, COBOL END-STRING Statement, COBOL END-UNSTRING Statement, COBOL END-INSPECT Statement, COBOL END-ACCEPT Statement, COBOL END-DISPLAY Statement, COBOL In-Line PERFORM, COBOL Nested Programs, COBOL END PROGRAM Header, COBOL CALL BY CONTENT, COBOL CALL BY REFERENCE, COBOL CALL BY VALUE, COBOL INITIAL Program Attribute, COBOL RECURSIVE Program Attribute, COBOL EXPORT and IMPORT (Some compilers support, COBOL ENTRY POINTS in Program, COBOL Debugging Lines (D in col 7), COBOL Comment Lines (*) in col 7, COBOL Continuation Lines (- in col 7), COBOL Fixed Format Source Columns, COBOL Column 7 Indicators, COBOL Column 72 Limit, COBOL Free Format (COBOL 2002+) , COBOL *CONTROL Compiler Directive, COBOL *CBL Compiler Directive, COBOL $ SET Compiler Directive (IBM), COBOL ADV Compiler Option, COBOL SSRANGE Compiler Option, COBOL APOST Compiler Option, COBOL RENT Compiler Option, COBOL MAP Compiler Option, COBOL OPTIMIZE Compiler Option, COBOL NOOPTIMIZE Compiler Option, COBOL INSPECT TALLYING, COBOL INSPECT REPLACING, COBOL INSPECT CONVERTING, COBOL STRING DELIMITED BY, COBOL UNSTRING DELIMITED BY, COBOL POINTER IN STRING/UNSTRING, COBOL SUBScripting Arrays (OCCURS), COBOL OCCURS Depending On Variables, COBOL Table Handling, COBOL SEARCH VERB, COBOL SEARCH ALL VERB, COBOL SORT VERB, COBOL MERGE VERB, COBOL USE FOR DEBUGGING ON Statement, COBOL USE Global Declarative, COBOL DECLARATIVES Section, COBOL END DECLARATIVES, COBOL FILE STATUS Checking, COBOL EXTEND MODE for files, COBOL REWRITE Statement, COBOL DELETE Statement (for indexed files), COBOL START Statement (indexed file positioning), COBOL READ NEXT, COBOL READ PREVIOUS (not standard widely COBOL READ KEY Is Clause, COBOL WRITE FROM Clause, COBOL WRITE ADVANCING PAGE, COBOL WRITE AFTER ADVANCING LINES, COBOL WRITE BEFORE ADVANCING, COBOL Page-Controlled Reports (REPORT SECTION), COBOL Report Writer Feature (Obsolete in some implementations), COBOL RH, PH, PF, DE, etc. in REPORT)], [[COBOL SPECIAL-NAMES Paragraph, COBOL DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA, COBOL CURRENCY SIGN Clause, COBOL CLASS Alphabet Name Definition, COBOL SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS, COBOL CRT STATUS Phrase (Old terminals), COBOL ADVANCING Control in WRITE, COBOL Nonnumeric Literals, COBOL Numeric Literals, COBOL PICTURE Clause (PIC), COBOL PIC 9 for digits, COBOL PIC X for alphanumeric, COBOL PIC A for alphabetic, COBOL PIC S for sign, COBOL PIC V for implied decimal, COBOL PIC P for scaling position, COBOL JUSTIFIED RIGHT Clause in PIC, COBOL BLANK WHEN ZERO Clause, COBOL ZERO SUPPRESSION, COBOL SIGN LEADING SEPARATE, COBOL SIGN TRAILING SEPARATE, COBOL USING in PROCEDURE DIVISION, COBOL GIVING/RETURNING in CALL, COBOL CANCEL Program, COBOL LINKAGE SECTION Parameters, COBOL EXTERNAL Name Clause, COBOL GLOBAL Clause for Data, COBOL COMMON Data, COBOL INITIAL Clause on Programs, COBOL IDENTIFICATION DIVISION PROGRAM-ID, COBOL AUTHOR Paragraph, COBOL INSTALLATION Paragraph, COBOL DATE-WRITTEN Paragraph, COBOL DATE-COMPILED Paragraph, COBOL SECURITY Paragraph, COBOL REMARKS Paragraph (Obsolete), COBOL Class Condition Checks, COBOL Condition-Names (88 Level), COBOL LEVEL 88 Definition, COBOL SET condition-name TO TRUE, COBOL SET condition-name TO FALSE, COBOL SET variable TO value, COBOL SET ... UP/DOWN BY value (for indexes), COBOL ACCEPT FROM DATE, COBOL ACCEPT FROM DAY, COBOL ACCEPT FROM DAY-OF-WEEK, COBOL ACCEPT FROM TIME, COBOL ACCEPT FROM COMMAND-LINE (Extension, COBOL ACCEPT FROM ENVIRONMENT (Extension, COBOL DISPLAY UPON], [COBOL DISPLAY WITH NO ADVANCING, COBOL READY TRACE (Obsolete Debug feature), COBOL USE AFTER ERROR Declarative, COBOL USE AFTER EXCEPTION Declarative, COBOL USE AFTER STANDARD Declarative, COBOL EXIT PARAGRAPH Statement, COBOL EXIT Perform CYCLE, COBOL EXIT Perform Loop
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