Definitions
Alphabet-Name
Alphabetic Character
Alphanumeric Character
Character
The basic indivisible unit of the language.
Character Position
A character position is the amount of physical storage required to store a single standard data format character whose usage is DISPLAY. Further characteristics of the physical storage are defined by the implementor.
Character-String
COBOL Word
Collating Sequence
The sequence in which the characters that are acceptable to a computer are ordered for purposes of sorting, merging, comparing, and for processing indexed files sequentially.
Comment-Entry
Data Item
A unit of data (excluding
Literals) defined by the COBOL program.
Figurative Constant
Any of the following literals:
Literal | Meaning |
|---|
ALL | Represents all or part of the string generated by successive concatenations of the characters comprising the literal. It must be a Nonnumeric Literal. |
HIGH-VALUE, HIGH-VALUES | Represents one or more characters with the highest ordinal position in the program collating sequence. Usually this is the hexadecimal value "FF". |
LOW-VALUE, LOW-VALUES | Represents one or more characters with the lowest ordinal position in the program collating sequence. Usually this is the binary value 0. |
NULL, NULLS | Represents the numeric value "zero" or one or more occurrences of a character whose underlying representation is binary zero. It also represents an invalid object reference when it is used in conjunction with OBJECT REFERENCE data types. |
QUOTE, QUOTES | Represents one or more quotation mark characters. These words may not be used in place of quotation marks for delimiting a Nonnumeric Literal. |
SPACE, SPACES | Represents one or more space characters. |
ZERO, ZEROS, ZEROES | Represents the numeric value "zero" or one or more occurrences of the character 0, depending on whether the constant is treated as a numeric or nonnumeric literal. |
Identifier
An identifier is a term used to reflect a data-name that, if not unique in a program, must be followed by a syntactically correct combination of qualifiers, subscripts, or reference modifiers necessary for uniqueness of reference.
Integer
A
Numeric Literal or a numeric data item that does not include any digit position to the right of the assumed decimal point. When the term 'integer' appears in general formats, integer must not be a numeric data item, and must not be signed, nor zero unless explicitly allowed by the rules of that format.
Letter
A
Character belonging to one of the following sets:
1. Uppercase letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z;
2. Lowercase letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, 1, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z
3. Accented letters: è, é, à, ù, ò, ì.
4. Other alphabets, according with the current encoding.
Literal
A
Character-String whose value is implied by the ordered set of characters comprising the string.
DBCS Literal
A double-byte
Character-String, a character set that uses two-byte (16-bit) characters rather than one-byte (8-bit) characters.
Nonnumeric Literal
• A
Literal bounded by quotation marks or apostrophes. The beginning and ending delimiters must be the same (that is, either both quotes or both apostrophes). The string of characters may include any
Character in the computer's character set. To place the delimiter character in a nonnumeric literal, use two contiguous delimiter characters (either two quotes or two apostrophes). These two characters represent a single occurrence of that character.
• The hexadecimal value of one or more characters using the native character set. Any of the following formats are recognized:
o X"hex-values"
o X'hex-values'
o H"hex-values"
o H'hex-values'
o N"national-digits"
o N’national-digits’
o NX"national-hex-digits"
o NX’national-hex-digits’
NOTE - National digits are managed as UTF-16BE characters.
• The name of a resource property specified by any of the following syntaxes:
o R"property_name"
o R'property_name'
Numeric Character
A
Character that belongs to the following set of digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Numeric Data Item
A
Data Item whose description restricts its content to a value represented by characters chosen from the digits '0' through '9'; if signed, the item may also contain a '+', '-', or other representation of an operational sign. (See the
SIGN clause.)
Numeric Literal
A
Literal composed of one or more
Numeric Characters that may contain either a decimal point, or an algebraic sign, or both. The decimal point must not be the rightmost character. The algebraic sign, if present, must be the leftmost character.
Numeric literals may also be specified using binary, octal, or hexadecimal notation. To specify a numeric literal in one of these forms, preface the number with one of the following prefixes:
Prefix | Notation | Usage Example (representation of zero) |
|---|
B# | Binary | B#110000 |
O# | Octal | O#60 |
X# | Hexadecimal | X#30 |
H# | Hexadecimal | H#30 |
Reserved Word
System name
A
COBOL Word that is used to communicate with the operating environment.
User-defined word
A user-defined word is a
COBOL Word that must be supplied by the user to satisfy the format of a clause or statement. Each
Character of a user-defined word is selected from
Literal,
Numeric Literal, '_' and '-', except that '_' and '-' may not appear as the first character.
Concatenation Expressions
A concatenation expression consists of two operands separated by the concatenation operator, e.g.
Both operands must be of the same class, except that a figurative constant may be specified as one or both operands. Neither operand must be numeric. Neither literal-1 nor literal-2 must be a figurative constant that begins with the word ALL.
The value of a concatenation expression is the concatenation of values of the literals, figurative constants and concatenation expressions of which it is composed and may be used anywhere a literal of that class may be used.