Variable
The Variable format divides the COBOL source row into areas as in Fixed format. The only difference from Fixed format is that the B area has no fixed right margin, though for practical purposes this implementation restricts the maximum length of a source line to 250 single-byte or 125 double-byte characters:
Columns 1 to 6 | Sequence number |
Column 7 | Indicator area |
Columns 8 to 11 | Area A |
Coulmns 12 to 250 | Area B |
• Division headers, section headers and paragraph names must start in Area A.
• Level numbers can appear either in Area A or Area B.
• All other COBOL text must start in Area B.
• Comments are identified by an asterisk, a slash or a dollar sign in the Indicator area (in this case the whole row is commented) or by a pipe in Area B (in this case only the text after the pipe is commented). Putting a star in column 1 creates a comment that will not be included in the list.
• All text before column 7 and after column 250 is ignored by the Compiler.