HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

HP COBOL
Reference Manual

standard intermediate data item: A temporary decimal floating-point data item used to hold arithmetic operands when standard arithmetic is in effect.

statement: In the Procedure Division, a syntactically valid combination of words and symbols that begins with a verb.

subject of entry: An operand or reserved word that appears immediately after the level indicator or level-number in a Data Division entry.

subprogram: See called program.

subscript: An integer whose value identifies a table element.

A subscript can be the word ALL when the subscripted identifier is an argument to an intrinsic function. (The function must allow a variable number of arguments in this argument position. See Chapter 7.) ALL, or generic, subscripting is the use of the word ALL to specify all elements in one or more dimensions of a table.

subscripted data-name: An identifier that consists of a data-name followed by one or more subscripts enclosed in parentheses.

sum counter: A signed numeric data item established by a SUM clause in the Report Section of the Data Division. The sum counter is used by the Report Writer Control System to contain the result of designated summing operations that take place during production of a report.

system image: The image that is read into memory from disk when the system is started up.

table: A set of logically consecutive data items defined with an OCCURS clause in the Data Division.

table element: A data item that belongs to the set of repeated items comprising a table.

terminal operator: The individual who, at run time, enters data in response to program prompts.

top margin: An empty area that precedes the page body.

unary operator: A plus (+) or a minus (-) sign that precedes a variable or left parenthesis in an arithmetic expression. It has the effect of multiplying the expression by +1 or -1.

unsuccessful execution: The attempted execution of a statement that does not result in the execution of all its operations. The unsuccessful execution of a statement does not affect any data referenced by that statement. However, it can affect status indicators.

update lock: An integrity lock that prevents a record from being used in any way in a concurrent run unit.

variable: A data item whose value can be changed by program execution. A variable used in an arithmetic expression must be a numeric elementary item.

variable-length record: A record associated with a file whose file description or sort-merge description entry permits records to contain a varying number of character positions.

variable occurrence data item: A table element that is repeated a variable number of times. It must contain an OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause in its data description entry or be subordinate to an item that does.

word: A character-string of not more than 31 characters that forms a user-defined word, a system-name, a reserved word, or a function-name.

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION: A Data Division section that describes Working-Storage data items. It consists of Working-Storage noncontiguous items or Working-Storage records or both.