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-rw-r--r--cobol.html.markdown37
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 13 deletions
diff --git a/cobol.html.markdown b/cobol.html.markdown
index 7c68db7b..7b60a2e6 100644
--- a/cobol.html.markdown
+++ b/cobol.html.markdown
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ organizations.
*and modern (COBOL-2002 and COBOL-2014) versions.
*Legacy versions require columns 1-6 to be blank (they are used
*to store the index number of the punched card..)
- *A * in column 7 means a comment.
+ *A '*' in column 7 means a comment.
*In legacy COBOL, a comment can only be a full line.
*Modern COBOL doesn't require fixed columns and uses *> for
*a comment, which can appear in the middle of a line.
@@ -44,8 +44,9 @@ organizations.
*Let's declare some variables.
*We do this in the WORKING-STORAGE section within the DATA DIVISION.
- *Each data item (aka variable) with start with a level number, then the name of the item,
- *followed by a picture clause describing the type of data that the variable will contain.
+ *Each data item (aka variable) with start with a level number,
+ *then the name of the item, followed by a picture clause
+ *describing the type of data that the variable will contain.
*Almost every COBOL programmer will abbreviate PICTURE as PIC.
*A is for alphabetic, X is for alphanumeric, and 9 is for numeric.
@@ -93,8 +94,10 @@ organizations.
*********PERFORM********************
- *The PERFORM keyword allows you to jump to another specified section of the code, and then to return to the next executable
- *statement once the specified section of code is completed. You must write the full word, PERFORM, you cannot abbreviate it.
+ *The PERFORM keyword allows you to jump to another specified section of the code,
+ *and then to return to the next executable
+ *statement once the specified section of code is completed.
+ *You must write the full word, PERFORM, you cannot abbreviate it.
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLOCOBOL.
@@ -102,8 +105,9 @@ organizations.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
FIRST-PARA.
DISPLAY 'THIS IS IN FIRST-PARA'.
- PERFORM THIRD-PARA THRU FOURTH-PARA. *>skip over second-para and perfrom third and fourth
- *> then after performing third and fourth, return here and continue the program until STOP RUN.
+ PERFORM THIRD-PARA THRU FOURTH-PARA. *>skip over second-para and perfrom 3rd & 4th
+ *> then after performing third and fourth,
+ *> return here and continue the program until STOP RUN.
SECOND-PARA.
DISPLAY 'THIS IS IN SECOND-PARA'.
@@ -127,7 +131,10 @@ organizations.
*Now it is time to learn about two related COBOL verbs: string and unstring.
- *The string verb is used to concatenate, or put together, two or more stings. Unstring is used, not surprisingly, to separate a *string into two or more smaller strings. It is important that you remember to use ‘delimited by’ when you
+ *The string verb is used to concatenate, or put together, two or more stings.
+ *Unstring is used, not surprisingly, to separate a
+ *string into two or more smaller strings.
+ *It is important that you remember to use ‘delimited by’ when you
*are using string or unstring in your program.
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
@@ -149,19 +156,23 @@ organizations.
*The above code will output:
-
THE FULL NAME IS: BOB COBB
*Let’s examine it to see why.
- *First, we declared all of our variables, including the one that we are creating by the string command, in the DATA DIVISISION.
+ *First, we declared all of our variables, including the one that we are creating
+ *by the string command, in the DATA DIVISION.
- *The action takes place down in the PROCEDURE DIVISION. We start with the STRING keyword and end with END-STRING. In between we *list what we want to combine together into the larger, master variable.
+ *The action takes place down in the PROCEDURE DIVISION.
+ *We start with the STRING keyword and end with END-STRING. In between we
+ *list what we want to combine together into the larger, master variable.
*Here, we are combining FIRST-NAME, a space, and LAST-NAME.
- *The DELIMITED BY phrase that follows FIRST-NAME and LAST-NAME tells the program how much of each variable we want to capture.
- *DELIMITED BY SPACE tells the program to start at the beginning, and capture the variable until it runs into a space.
+ *The DELIMITED BY phrase that follows FIRST-NAME and
+ *LAST-NAME tells the program how much of each variable we want to capture.
+ *DELIMITED BY SPACE tells the program to start at the beginning,
+ *and capture the variable until it runs into a space.
*DELIMITED BY SIZE tells the program to capture the full size of the variable.
*Since we have DELIMITED BY SPACE after FIRST-NAME, the GIBBERISH part is ignored.