Microsoft KB Archive/36575

COBOL 3.0 Limits; Maximum Array Dimensions, File Sizes, etc.

PSS ID Number: Q36575 Article last modified on 04-20-1993

3.00 | 3.00 MS-DOS | OS/2

Summary: The information below summarizes the maximum sizes of files, index keys, data items, nested performs, table (array) dimensions, number of parameters in a call statement, program size, and more. Many of these figures are further limited on the operating environment and may be thought of only as the maximum possible limits. See Chapter 9 of the “Microsoft COBOL Compiler Version 3.0 Operating Guide” for more details.

More Information: The following are COBOL Version 3.0 limits for code and data: The maximum program size is 256 megabytes with 4096 megabytes of data (which would require OS/2 protected mode). The following data items have different maximum lengths: Data type length in Bytes Alphanumeric 256 megabytes Numeric edited 512 Numeric 18 A table(array) may have 16 subscripts(dimensions). The maximum allowable nesting is as follows: Type Nesting Depth IFs 64 PERFORMs 92 PERFORM n times 96 CALLs 24 The maximum number of Procedure Division USING parameters that can be passed to a Run Time System subroutine is 126. All of the parameters must be defined in the first 64K of the Data Division. Neither a single paragraph or the File Section can be larger than 64K. The following are COBOL Version 3.0 limits for files: A maximum of 128 files may be opened simultaneously. Of these, 30 may be Indexed Sequential (ISAM) files. You may use up to 200 locks at once to lock records or a file. (However, this number may be limited by your network.) A sequential or line sequential file may be of any length and contain any number of records. Records may contain a maximum of 62 kilobytes. Relative and Indexed Sequential files may contain up to 2000 megabytes of data in up to 2000 megabyte records, but they are limited by the operating system. MS-DOS Version 3.3 and MS-OS/2 Version 1.0 only support disk files up to 32 megabytes in size. The number of INDEX KEYS in ISAM files is unlimited, but no key (or split key) may exceed 255 bytes.

Additional reference words: 3.00 Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1993.