COBOL Intrinsic Functions

Intrinsic functions are built-in functions that facilitate various operations without the need for extensive procedural logic. These functions offer a range of functionalities, from mathematical computations to string manipulations.

The functions are grouped into six categories based on the type of purpose served. They are -

  • Mathematical
  • Statistical
  • Date and Time
  • Financial
  • Character Handling
  • General

Below list specifies the intrinsic functions -

  • ACOS
  • ADD-DURATION
  • ANNUITY
  • ASIN
  • ATAN
  • CHAR
  • CONVERT-DATE-TIME
  • COS
  • CURRENT-DATE
  • DATE-OF-INTEGER
  • DAY-OF-INTEGER
  • DAY-TO-YYYYDDD
  • EXTRACT-DATE-TIME
  • DATE-TO-YYYYMMDD
  • DISPLAY-OF
  • FACTORIAL
  • FIND-DURATION
  • INTEGER
  • INTEGER-OF-DATE
  • INTEGER-OF-DAY
  • INTEGER-PART
  • LENGTH
  • LOCALE-DATE
  • LOCALE-TIME
  • LOG
  • LOG10
  • LOWER-CASE
  • MAX
  • MEAN
  • MEDIAN
  • MIDRANGE
  • MIN
  • MOD
  • NATIONAL-OF
  • NUMVAL
  • NUMVAL-C
  • ORD
  • ORD-MAX
  • ORD-MIN
  • PRESENT-VALUE
  • RANDOM
  • RANGE
  • REM
  • REVERSE
  • SIN
  • SQRT
  • STANDARD-DEVIATION
  • SUBTRACT-DURATION
  • SUM
  • TAN
  • TEST-DATE-TIME
  • TRIM
  • TRIML
  • TRIMR
  • UPPER-CASE
  • VARIANCE
  • UTF8STRING
  • WHEN-COMPILED
  • YEAR-TO-YYYY

Examples -

Scenario1 - Converts a numeric edited string to a numeric value.

Code-  COMPUTE WS-NUM = FUNCTION NUMVAL('123.45')

Result-     WS-NUM = 123.45

Scenario2 - Returns the integer portion of a numeric value.

Code-  COMPUTE WS-INT-PART = FUNCTION INTEGER(123.45)

Result-     WS-INT-PART = 123

Scenario3 - Converts a string to upper case.

Code-  MOVE FUNCTION UPPER-CASE('hello') TO WS-UPPERCASE-STRING

Result-     WS-UPPERCASE-STRING = HELLO

Scenario4 - Reverses the characters in a string.

Code-  MOVE FUNCTION REVERSE('hello') TO WS-REVERSED-STRING

Result-     WS-REVERSED-STRING = olleh

Scenario5 - Returns the date and time the program was compiled.

Code-  MOVE FUNCTION WHEN-COMPILED TO COMPILE-TIME