HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

HP COBOL
Reference Manual

digit position: The amount of physical storage needed to store one digit. This amount can vary depending on the usage specified in the data description entry that defines the data item. When the data description entry specifies that usage is DISPLAY, a digit position equals one character position.

dynamic access: An access mode in which a program can randomly or sequentially obtain records from, or randomly place records into, a mass storage file. A program can use both types of access during the scope of the same OPEN statement.

editing character: A PICTURE clause character used to format data for output. Editing characters can be any of the following set of single characters or fixed two-character combinations:

end of Procedure Division: The physical position in a source program after which no further procedures appear.

END PROGRAM header: A combination of words, followed by a separator period, that indicates the end of a source program. The End Program header is: END PROGRAM program-name.

entry: Any descriptive set of consecutive clauses, terminated by a separator period, in the Identification, Environment, or Data Division.

environment clause: A clause that is part of an Environment Division entry.

executable image: An image that is capable of being run in a process. When run, an executable image is read from a file for execution in a process.

execution time: When a program runs.

explicit scope terminator: A reserved word that terminates the scope of a particular conditional statement.

expression: An arithmetic or conditional expression.

extend mode: The state of a file after a program opens it with the EXTEND phrase and before the program closes it without the REEL or UNIT phrase.

external data item: A data item described as part of an external record in one or more programs of a run unit. An external data item can be referenced from any program in which it is described.

external data record: A record described in one or more programs of a run unit. Its data items can be referenced from any program in which they are described.

external file connector: A file connector that is accessible to one or more object programs in the run unit.

external switch: A software flag that indicates that one of two alternate states exists. On Tru64 UNIX systems, the environment variable COBOL_SWITCHES represents external switches. On OpenVMS systems, the logical name COB$SWITCHES represents external switches.

file: A collection of logical records stored as a unit.

file clause: A clause that is part of a file description (FD) or sort-merge file description (SD).

file description entry: An entry in the File Section of the Data Division that starts with the level indicator FD. The level indicator is followed, in order, by: (1) a file-name, and (2) a set of file clauses, as required.

file organization: The permanent logical file structure defined when a file is created.

File Position Indicator: A conceptual entity for sequential, relative, and indexed files that points to the next logical record. The File Position Indicator can also indicate that: (1) no next logical record exists or has been established, or (2) an optional file is not present.

FILE SECTION: A Data Division section. The File Section contains file description, report file description, and sort-merge file description entries and their associated record descriptions.

fixed-length record: A record of a file whose file description or sort-merge description entry requires that all records contain the same number of character positions.

floating-point : The floating-point data types represent approximations to quantities using a sign, a fraction, and an exponent. Such a representation describes a value that is the product of the fraction and the quantity derived by raising a base to the power of the exponent.

A floating-point data item has one of these usages: COMP-1, COMP-2, FLOAT-SHORT, FLOAT-LONG, or FLOAT-EXTENDED.

footing area: The position of the page body adjacent to the bottom margin.

format: A specific arrangement of a set of data.

function: An intrinsic function: a temporary elementary data item that represents a value to be determined at the time the function is referenced during the execution of a statement. The value can be alphanumeric, numeric, or integer, depending on the function type.

function-identifier: A syntactically correct combination of character strings and separators that references an intrinsic function. The data item represented by a function is uniquely identified by the word FUNCTION, a function-name, and arguments, if any. A function-identifier may include a reference-modifier. A function-identifier that references an alphanumeric function may be specified anywhere in the general formats that an identifier may be specified, subject to certain restrictions. A function-identifier that references an integer or numeric function may be referenced anywhere in the general formats that an arithmetic expression may be specified, subject to certain restrictions.

function-name: A COBOL word that is one of a list of words (see Table 7-1) that may be used in COBOL source programs to name a mechanism to determine the value of an intrinsic function. The same word, in a different context, may appear in a program as a user-defined word or a system-name (or, in the case of LENGTH, RANDOM, or SUM, as a reserved word).

high-order end: The leftmost character of a string of characters.

identifier: A syntactically correct combination of character strings and separators that names a data item: either (1) a data-name, together with any qualifiers, reference modifier, subscripts, and indexes required for uniqueness of reference, or (2) a function-identifier. However, the rules for an identifier associated with a general format may specifically prohibit reference modification, qualification, subscripting, indexing, or reference to functions.

I-O mode: The state of a file after a program opens it with the I-O phrase, and before the program closes it without the REEL or UNIT phrase.

image: An image consists of procedures and data bound together by the linker. There are three types of images: executable, shareable, and system. See also run unit.

implementor-name: A system-name that refers to a feature available in HP COBOL.

implicit scope terminator: An implicit scope terminator can be either of the following:

• A separator period that ends the scope of any preceding unterminated statement
• A phrase of a statement that, by its occurrence, ends the scope of any statement in the preceding phrase

index: A computer storage area or register whose contents represent the identification of an element in a table.

index data item: A data item in which a program can store the values associated with an index-name. The USAGE IS INDEX clause defines an index data item.

indexed data-name: An identifier that consists of a data-name followed by one or more index-names in parentheses.

indexed file: A file with indexed organization.

indexed organization: The permanent logical file structure in which each record contains one or more keys whose values identify it.

initial program: A program that is in its initial state whenever it is called. The initialization process sets all local data items whose description includes a VALUE clause to their defined values. Data items without a VALUE clause assume their default values.

input file: A file opened in input mode.

input mode: The state of a file after a program opens it with the INPUT phrase, and before the program closes it without the REEL or UNIT phrase.

input procedure: A set of statements that receives control during SORT statement execution. An input procedure controls the release of records to the sort.

input-output file: A file opened in I-O mode.

integer: (1) A numeric literal that does not include any digit positions to the right of the decimal point. (2) A numeric data item defined in the Data Division that does not include any digit positions to the right of the decimal point. (3) A numeric function whose definition provides that all digits to the right of the decimal point are zero in the returned value for any possible evaluation of the function.

When the term integer appears in a general format, or in its associated rules, integer must be a numeric literal that is an integer, and it cannot be signed or zero unless explicitly allowed by the rules of the format.

integer function: An intrinsic function whose category is numeric and whose definition provides that all digits to the right of the decimal point are zero in the returned value for any possible evaluation of the function.