The EDBI-WHERE-CONSTRAINT external variable
Edbi-where-constraint is used to specify an additional WHERE condition for a succeeding START operation. 
If you want to query city names that start with "A", add the following to your code:
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 01 edbi-where-constraint  pic x(300) is external. ... PROCEDURE DIVISION. ... *> to specify edbi-where-constraint   MOVE SPACES TO  edbi-where-constraint OPEN I-O INVOICE MOVE "city_name like 'A%'" to  edbi-where-constraint MOVE SPACES TO INV-KEY START INVOICE KEY IS NOT LESS INV-KEY  | 
The A4GL-WHERE-CONSTRAINT external variable
The EDBI routines work in Acucobol-GT compatibility in these two cases
•	if they are generated by the EDBIIS command and the 
-ca option is used on the EDBIIS command line, or
 When the Acucobol-GT compatibility is active, the A4GL-WHERE-CONSTRAINT external variable is evaluated instead of EDBI-WHERE-CONSTRAINT. The definition and usage of A4GL-WHERE-CONSTRAINT are the same as EDBI-WHERE-CONSTRAINT. The only difference between these two external data items is that A4GL-WHERE-CONSTRAINT is automatically initialized before the next START statement.
If you want to query city names that start with "A" in Acucobol-GT compatibility, add the following to your code:
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 01 a4gl-where-constraint  pic x(300) is external. ... PROCEDURE DIVISION. ... *> to specify edbi-where-constraint   MOVE SPACES TO  edbi-where-constraint OPEN I-O INVOICE MOVE "city_name like 'A%'" to  a4gl-where-constraint MOVE SPACES TO INV-KEY START INVOICE KEY IS NOT LESS INV-KEY  |