Microsoft KB Archive/37883

General COBOL Terms: ANSI, TABLE, NAMED CONDITION, etc.

PSS ID Number: Q37883 Article last modified on 04-20-1993

3.00 3.00a | 3.00 3.00a MS-DOS | OS/2

Summary: The list below is a glossary of general COBOL terminology: ANSI American National Standards Institute, an organization that sets standards for languages. The COBOL language was been standardized in 1968, 1974, and 1985 by ANSI. DATA ITEM A user-defined variable. ELEMENTARY DATA ITEM A data item with no subordinate data items. GROUP LEVEL DATA ITEM A data item with one or more subordinate data items. INDEX Used to refer to subscripts (indexes) and also the key file portion of an ISAM file. NAMED CONDITION A level 88 data item names a condition, as in the following example: 01 EOF-FLAG PIC X. 88 END-OF-FILE VALUE “1”. Now the following two IF statements are equivalent: IF EOF-FLAG = “1” IF END-OF-FILE The named condition END-OF-FILE tests the EOF-FLAG equal to “1”. Many non-COBOL languages call a named condition a “boolean variable.” PARAGRAPH A collection of executable statements in the PROCEDURE DIVISION that make up a procedure. The first line in the paragraph is the name. SCOPE TERMINATOR (or SCOPE DELIMITER) Delimits how far certain PROCEDURE DIVISION statements apply. For example, the IF statement is terminated by the END-IF scope terminator. Other terminators include END-EVALUATE, END-PERFORM, and END-CALL. See Page 2-50 of the “Microsoft COBOL Compiler Version 3.0: Language Reference Manual” for a complete list. TABLE The same as an array in other languages. Tables are subscripted with indexes and are defined with an OCCURS clause.

Additional reference words: 3.00 3.00a Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1993.