Student Notebook

UNIT 1

Introduction To Language Features

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Unit 1. Introduction to Language Features
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Common Business Oriented Language

• 1959 – New Language is • 1968 –2nd version of cobol

named COBOL was approved and
standardized by ANSI
• 1960 – Codasyl
established COBOL
maintenance committee • 1974 – Revised and released
as COBOL-74

• 1961 – 1st version of • 1985- Revised and released

complier made available. as COBOL-85
Users started writing
programs

Figure 1-1 Common Business Oriented Language

To meet the increasing demands for a high level language suitable for business data
processing, the United States Department of Defense Convened a Conference on 28th
and 29th of May 1958.
Three committee were formed for the actual design of the language.
In September 1959 the short term committee submitted a report to the Defense
Directorate thus COBOL came into existence.
COBOL is known as a structured programming language because it allows
programmers to segregate the modules and put them into different paragraphs in a
more efficient way.
Some of the features of COBOL are
It is English-like and more easily readable
Efficient file handling capabilities.
More than 70% of business applications are running on COBOL
Reduces the efforts required for documentation of the program.
The following features are available with VS COBOL II:
MVS/XA and MVS/ESA support
The compiler and the object programs it produces can be run in either
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24- or 31-bit addressing mode

COBOL Program Organization

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION
DATA DIVISION
PROCEDURE DIVISION

Figure 1-2 COBOL Program Organization

Notes:

The four divisions of the COBOL source program are :

• IDENTIFICATION DIVISION

This division’s primary purpose is to name the program

• ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

This division is primarily used to tell the computer about the input and output
devices such as files or printers.

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• DATA DIVISION

This division describes the data the program will be using and carves out
sections of memory to map the data. Here you would distinguish between data,
which will be used for a “ scratch pad” area called WORKING-STORAGE and
the holding area for data that will be used by the files.

• PROCEDURE DIVISION

The PROCEDURE DIVISION is the section of our program where the logic or
commands reside. This is the logic or rules we will use to manipulate the data
defined in the DATA DIVISION to solve a business problem.

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Cobol Language Structure

• Characters
• Character String
• COBOL Words
• User-Defined Words
• Reserved Words
• Figurative Words
• Special Registers
• IBM Extensions
• Non-numeric and numeric Literals

Figure 1-3 COBOL Language Structure

Notes:

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Structure of a Cobol Program

Examples
• Divisions DATA DIVISION

• Sections or Paragraphs PROGRAM-ID

FILE SECTION, 100-PARA

• Statements MOVE A TO B

• Sentences IF A>B MOVE A TO B ELSE

ADD C TO D

Figure 1-4 Structure of a Cobol Program

Notes:

All COBOL programs should follow the structure. Rules of coding varies, depending
on the compiler versions but the structure remains same. A period (.) is a must at the
end of each sentence and indicates the end of the sentence.

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Character Set of COBOL

COBOL supports the following characters

Numbers : 0-9

Alphabets : a-z, A-Z

Spaces or blanks

Arithmetic operators : ex: **, *, +, -, /

Special characters : ex: - \ / , ;

Figure 1-5 Character Set of COBOL

Notes:

The COBOL dictionary words used for coding are called COBOL reserved words and
they should not be used as user-defined words.
Lower case alphabets can be used for coding depending on the compiler version.
Comma (,) or space is used as separators for user-defined words.

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Sample COBOL Program

Columns
1 67 8 11 12 72 73 80

* This is a sample program

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. SAMPLE.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 A PIC 9(2) VALUE 20.
01 B PIC 9(2) VALUE 3O.
01 C PIC 9(3) VALUE ZEROS.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
DISPLAY ‘THE SUM IS’.
ADD A ,B GIVING C.
DISPLAY C.
STOP RUN.

Figure 1-6 Sample COBOL program

Notes:
1-6 -------------- Sequence numbers
7 -------------- Indicator/Comment/Continuation
8-11 -------------- Area A
12-72 -------------- Area B
73-80 -------------- Descriptor
This foil shows a sample COBOL program to ‘ADD’ two numbers and ‘DISPLAY’
the sum. SAMPLE is the program name.
SAMPLE, A, B AND C are called user-defined words.
A, B,C are called variables or data-items.
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Coding Format

Columns Name Purpose

01-06 Sequence Sequence numbers are

generated by Cobol Compiler
07 for each line.
Indicator To mark an asterisk (*) or a
slash (/) for comment line, or a
hyphen (-) for continuation of
08-11 a statement.
Area A All division headings, section
and paragraph headings and
‘01’ level entries should begin
12-72 from this area.
Area B All Cobol statements and
sentences should lie within
73-80 this area
Description Any thing written in this area
is ignored.

Figure: 1-7 Coding Format

Notes:

COBOL coding should follow the standard format.

The Screen is divided into different areas for the purposes explained above.
All statements indicating action are called COBOL verbs and should begin from 12th
column or after.
-E.g MOVE, ADD, DIVIDE, STOP RUN
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User-defined Words

Valid Invalid Reason

TOTAL-OF-FIGURES DATA Cobol reserved word
34B100-PARA1 -48B Hyphen in beginning
GROSS-PAY GROSS PAY space in b/w 2 words

Literals Examples

Numeric constants 35, -345.67

Alphanumeric constants ‘Leo talstoy’
‘ka01-h215’

• Paragraph names, Identifiers, File names can be defined by users.

• The terms identifiers, data-names, variables, data-items are often used
interchangeably indicates memory.

Figure: 1-8 User Defined Words

Notes:
All user-defined words should conform to following rules
• Length should not exceed 30 characters.
• At least one character must be an alphabet.
• Spaces and special characters are not allowed.
• Word can contain hyphens (-) but not in the beginning or at the end
• Cannot be a COBOL reserved word.

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