Floating Comment Indicator

Info! Inline comments are introduced by COBOL V5.1 and supported from v5.1. Previous versions (before COBOL V5.1) do not support inline comments.

The floating comment indicator is used to add comments in the middle of the code line.
The indicator begins with *> and sets the statements written after the indicator as comments.
The comments starting with *> are called inline or floating comments.
A floating comment line can begin anywhere in Area-A and Area-B.

Rules -

Both characters (* and >) should be contiguous.
A space should precede the floating comment indicator (*>).

Examples -

Scenario1 - Inline comment in Area-A.

Code -

----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5
	    *> INLINE COMMENT LINE CAN BE UPTO END OF THE AREA-B.

Scenario2 - Inline comment in Area-B.

Code -

----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5
       01 WS-VAR        PIC X(12).    *> INLINE COMMENT

Practical Example -

Scenario - Floating comment code in COBOL program.

Code -

----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5
       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
       PROGRAM-ID. FLOATCOM.
       AUTHOR. MTH.

       PROCEDURE DIVISION.

        *> Inline comment starts in Area-A

           DISPLAY "INLINE COMMENT DISPLAY". *> Inline comment in Area-B
           STOP RUN.