Basic Verbs
Every programming language is designed with some system-defined set of characters, symbols, keywords, and standards. Similarly, COBOL has its own set of characters, symbols, keywords, and standards. Below are the basic and known terms in the COBOL –
- Character set
- Character strings
- COBOL Words
- Variables
- Literals
- Constants
- Figurative Constants
- Comments
- Separators
Character set -
The character set refers to the collection of valid characters that can be used within the language. These are used to define literals, variables, and other identifiers in a COBOL program.
The COBOL language has its own set of valid characters (78) that contains alphabets (A-Z | a-z), digits (0-9), and special characters. The list of basic COBOL characters are –
Character | Meaning | Character | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
Space | ' | Apostrophe | |
+ | Plus | ( | Left parenthesis |
- | Minus or hyphen | ) | Right parenthesis |
* | Asterisk | > | Greater than |
/ | Forward slash or solidus | < | Less than |
= | Equal sign | : | Colon |
$ | Currency sign | _ | Underscore |
, | Comma | A - Z | Alphabet (uppercase) |
; | Semicolon | a - z | Alphabet (lowercase) |
. | Decimal point or period | 0 - 9 | Numeric characters |
" | Quotation mark |
Character Strings
The character string is a set of characters created for a purpose or to name something. Character strings are used as -
- COBOL Words
- Variables
- Literals
- Constants
- Figurative Constants
- Comments
COBOL Words -
A COBOL word is a set of characters, and each character is from the character set - A to Z, 0 to 9, - (hyphen), _ (underscore). COBOL word minimum length is 1 character and maximum length is 30 characters.
COBOL Word Types -
COBOL words are two types and those are -
- User-defined Words - Any word coded by the developer in the program is considered as a user-defined word. For Example - MTHPROG1, STD-GENDER, ....
- Reserved Words - A reserved word is a system-defined word with proper meaning or task assigned in COBOL language. For Example - ACCEPT, SKIP1, ZEROS, ....
Variable -
A Variable is a data name used to hold the value for processing in the program. A Variable is also called as a data item. For Example - WS-A, WS-VAR, WS-TOTAL, WS-INPUT, WS_OUTPUT, etc. Every variable should declare in the DATA DIVISION of the COBOL program.
We will learn more about variable in the further topics.
Literal -
The literal is the value that is assigned to the variable. The value can be a string or number or a figurative constant. Literals are classified into two types –
- Non-numeric literals - Non-numeric literals are the strings enclosed by quotation marks(") or apostrophes(').
It can contain all valid character that are allowed by COBOL.
For Example - "HELLO", "THIS ISN'T WRONG", etc. - Numeric literals - A numeric literal is a number that is a combination of a sign character (+ or -), and a decimal point.
A numeric literal codes directly without quotation marks(" ") or apostrophes(' ').
For Example - 1234, -1234, etc.
Constant -
A variable can be initialized with a literal. If the literal doesn't change during the program's execution, the variable is considered as a constant variable, and the value is considered as a constant value.
Constants are three types, and those are –
- Numeric constants – Numeric variables having one value throughout the program execution are called numeric constants. For example - 01 WS-PI PIC 9(2)V9(2) VALUE 3.14.
- Alphanumeric | non-numeric constants – Alphanumeric variables that have only one value throughout the program execution are called as alphanumeric constants. For example - 01 WS-HI PIC X(05) VALUE "HI".
- Figurative Constants - System-defined constants are predefined in the COBOL and used as replacement for standard values like spaces, zeroes, etc. For example - 01 WS-VAR PIC 9(5) VALUE ZEROES.
Figurative Constant -
Figurative constants are system-defined keywords with predefined values. The figurative constants in COBOL are -
Figurative constant | Description |
---|---|
ZERO, ZEROS, ZEROES |
Represents one or more occurrences of the numeric value 0. ZERO is a single 0 and ZEROS or ZEROES means two or more occurrences of 0s. |
SPACE, SPACES |
Represents one or more occurrences of the space. i.e., " " or X'40'. SPACE is single SPACE (" "), and SPACES means two or more occurrences of space. |
HIGH-VALUE, HIGH-VALUES |
Represents one or more occurrences of the high-value. i.e., X'FF'. |
LOW-VALUE, LOW-VALUES |
Represents one or more occurrences of the low-value. i.e., X'00'). |
QUOTE, QUOTES |
Represents one or more occurrences of quotation mark (") or apostrophe ('). |
ALL | Represents one or more occurrences of the characters string or figurative constant. |
Comments -
A comment is dummy statement that is used to provide information about code or requirements. All computer-supported characters are allowed to write a comment and it do not affect the execution of the program.
The comments are considered as three types based on their usage and where they are used -
- IDENTIFICATION DIVISION Comments - The entries with optional paragraphs are comments and their usage is -
AUTHOR. NameOfProgrammer. INSTALLATION. Development-center. DATE-WRITTEN. mm/dd/yy. DATE-COMPILED. mm/dd/yy. HH:MM:SS. SECURITY. Program-type.
- Full line comments (any division) - Any line starting with an asterisk (*) in column 7 (indicator area) is considered as a full-line comment. For example -
----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5 * FULL LINE COMMENT WITH * IN COLUMN-7.
- An inline comment starts with a floating comment indicator (*>) in the middle of any line in between 8-72 columns. For example -
01 WS-VAR PIC X(12). *> INLINE COMMENT
Separators
A separator is a single or multiple character that separates words or strings. The below table shows the separators list -
Separator | Meaning | Separator | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
Space | : | Colon | |
, | Comma | " | Quotation mark |
. | Period | ' | Apostrophe |
; | Semicolon | == | Pseudo-text delimiter |
Practical Example -
Scenario - Below screenshot describes the different types of character strings in COBOL programming.

