COBOL Floating Insertion Editing

• Floating insertion editing is used for formatting numeric variables, mainly when dealing with currency values.
• Unlike fixed insertion editing, floating insertion allows characters to "float" to the position immediately preceding the leftmost nonzero digit of the number.
• The symbols are - currency (CS), plus (+), and minus (-).

Notes -

• It is applicable only for numeric items.
• These symbols are considered as part of the data item length.
• The edited variable's length differs from the same variable's length before editing.
• All symbols are mutually exclusive within one PIC string.

Symbols -

Floating insertion editing symbols are -

• + : Plus sign is used to highlight the sign of the value. Displays a minus if the value is negative. Displays a plus sign if the value is positive. It should be the first or last character in the PICTURE string.
• - : Minus sign to highlight negative values only. Displays a minus sign if the value is negative. Displays space if the value is positive. It should be the first or last character in the PICTURE string.
• $ : Inserts dollar sign. It should be the leftmost character.

Examples -

Floating insertion is especially useful when dealing with currency values in financial applications. It is for cleaner, more human-readable representations of amount when the value varies in length.