Compaq COBOL
Reference Manual

Contents (summary)
Preface	Preface
Chapter 1	Overview of the COBOL Language
Chapter 2	Organization of a COBOL Program
Chapter 3	Identification Division
Chapter 4	Environment Division
Chapter 5	Data Division
Chapter 6	Procedure Division
Chapter 7	Intrinsic Functions
Chapter 8	Source Text Manipulation
Appendix A	Compaq COBOL Reserved Words
Appendix B	Character Sets
Appendix C	File Status Values
Appendix D	Report Writer Presentation Rules and Tables
Appendix E	RTL Routines for Accessing the RAB and FAB Structures (OpenVMS Alpha Only)
	Glossary
	Index
	Figures
	Examples
	Tables

Contents

Preface

Preface Preface

Chapter 1

1 Overview of the COBOL Language

     1.1     The COBOL Character Set

     1.2     Character Strings

         1.2.1         COBOL Words

             1.2.1.1             User-Defined Words

             1.2.1.2             System-Names

             1.2.1.3             Reserved Words

             1.2.1.4             Function-Names

         1.2.2         Literals

             1.2.2.1             Numeric Literals

             1.2.2.2             Nonnumeric Literals

         1.2.3         Figurative Constants

         1.2.4         PICTURE Character-Strings

         1.2.5         Separators

     1.3     Source Reference Format

         1.3.1         ANSI Format

         1.3.2         Terminal Format

     1.4     Sample Entry Format

Chapter 2

2 Organization of a COBOL Program

     2.1     Program Structure

         2.1.1         Division Header

         2.1.2         Section Header

         2.1.3         Paragraph, Paragraph Header, Paragraph-Name

     2.2     Data Division Entries

     2.3     Declaratives

Chapter 3

3 Identification Division

     3.1     Function

         3.1.1         PROGRAM-ID Paragraph

         3.1.2         AUTHOR

         3.1.3         DATE-COMPILED

         3.1.4         OPTIONS (Alpha)

Chapter 4

4 Environment Division

     4.1     CONFIGURATION Section

         4.1.1         SOURCE-COMPUTER

         4.1.2         OBJECT-COMPUTER

         4.1.3         SPECIAL-NAMES

     4.2     INPUT-OUTPUT Section

         4.2.1         FILE_CONTROL

         4.2.2         ASSIGN

         4.2.3         BLOCK CONTAINS

         4.2.4         CODE-SET

         4.2.5         LOCK MODE (Alpha)

         4.2.6         ORGANIZATION

         4.2.7         PADDING CHARACTER

         4.2.8         RECORD DELIMITER (OpenVMS)

         4.2.9         RESERVE

         4.2.10         I-O-CONTROL

Chapter 5

5 Data Division

     5.1     Logical Concepts of Data Storage

         5.1.1         Record Description Entries

         5.1.2         Level-Numbers

         5.1.3         Multiple Record Description Entries for the Same Data

     5.2     Physical Concepts of Data Storage

         5.2.1         Categories and Classes of Data

         5.2.2         COBOL Standard Alignment Rules

         5.2.3         Additional Alignment Rules for Record Allocation

         5.2.4         Alpha-Only Alignment and Padding

     5.3     DATA DIVISION General Format and Rules

         5.3.1         FD (File Description) Sequential, Line Sequential (Alpha), Relative, Indexed, and Report File Descriptions

         5.3.2         SD (Sort-Merge File Description)

         5.3.3         RD (Report Description)

         5.3.4         Data Description

         5.3.5         Report Group Description

         5.3.6         Screen Description (Alpha)

         5.3.7         ACCESS MODE

         5.3.8         ALTERNATE RECORD KEY

         5.3.9         AUTO

         5.3.10         BACKGROUND-COLOR (Alpha)

         5.3.11         BELL

         5.3.12         BLANK

         5.3.13         BLANK WHEN ZERO

         5.3.14         BLINK (Alpha)

         5.3.15         CODE

         5.3.16         COLUMN NUMBER

         5.3.17         CONTROL

         5.3.18         Data-Name

         5.3.19         DATA RECORDS

         5.3.20         ERASE (Alpha)

         5.3.21         EXTERNAL

         5.3.22         FILE STATUS

         5.3.23         FOREGROUND-COLOR (Alpha)

         5.3.24         FULL (Alpha)

         5.3.25         GLOBAL

         5.3.26         GROUP INDICATE

         5.3.27         HIGHLIGHT (Alpha)

         5.3.28         JUSTIFIED

         5.3.29         LABEL RECORDS

         5.3.30         Level-Number

         5.3.31         LINAGE

         5.3.32         LINE NUMBER (Alpha)

         5.3.33         LOWLIGHT (Alpha)

         5.3.34         NEXT GROUP

         5.3.35         OCCURS

         5.3.36         PAGE

         5.3.37         PICTURE

         5.3.38         RECORD

         5.3.39         RECORD KEY

         5.3.40         REDEFINES

         5.3.41         RENAMES

         5.3.42         REPORT

         5.3.43         REQUIRED (Alpha)

         5.3.44         REVERSE-VIDEO (Alpha)

         5.3.45         SECURE (Alpha)

         5.3.46         SIGN

         5.3.47         SOURCE

         5.3.48         SUM

         5.3.49         SYNCHRONIZED

         5.3.50         TYPE

         5.3.51         UNDERLINE

         5.3.52         USAGE

         5.3.53         VALUE IS

         5.3.54         VALUE OF ID