Selective programming construction involves making the set of statements runs in conditional/selective manner. In selective programming construction, the statements execution decides by a condition.

Every condition has two selection flows (either condition true flow or condition false flow).Single line conditional statements are the part of selective programming construction.

COBOL has a below statements that are part of selective programming -

Example:

Example with a combination of IF and EVALUATE statements.

Code:

       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.                                         
       PROGRAM-ID. IFCOND.                                             
       DATA DIVISION.                                                   
       WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.                                         
       01 STUDENT-DETAILS.                                              
          02 STD-NUM                PIC 9(03).                        
          02 STD-NAME.                                                  
             03 STD-NAME-INIT          PIC X(01).                       
                88 STD-NAME-VALID   VALUE 'A' THRU 'Z'.                 
             03 STD-NAME-REST          PIC X(14).                       
          02 STD-GENDER             PIC X(01).                          
             88 VALID-GENDER        VALUE 'M' 'F'.                      
          02 STD-MARKS              PIC 9(03).                         
             88 FIRST-CLASS         VALUE 060 THRU 100.                 
             88 SECOND-CLASS        VALUE 050 THRU 059.                 
             88 THIRD-CLASS         VALUE 035 THRU 049.                 
             88 FAIL                VALUE 000 THRU 034.                 
       PROCEDURE DIVISION.                                             
           ACCEPT STD-NUM.                                              
           ACCEPT STD-NAME.                                             
           ACCEPT STD-MARKS.                                           
           DISPLAY 'STUDENT DETAILS....'.                              
           DISPLAY 'STUDENT NUMBER : ' STD-NUM.                         
      * SIMPLE IF CONDITION                                             
           IF STD-NAME-VALID                                            
              DISPLAY 'STUDENT NAME   : ' STD-NAME                      
           END-IF.                                                      
      * IF ELSE CONDITION                                              
           IF VALID-GENDER                                              
              DISPLAY 'STUDENT GENDER : ' STD-GENDER                    
           ELSE                                                         
              DISPLAY 'STUDENT GENDER GIVEN WAS INVALID'               
           END-IF.                                                      
      * EVALUATE                                                        
           EVALUATE STD-MARKS                                          
              WHEN 60 THRU 100                                          
                   DISPLAY 'STUDENT GOT FIRST CLASS   '                
              WHEN 50 THRU 59                                           
                   DISPLAY 'STUDENT GOT SECOND CLASS  '                 
              WHEN 35 THRU 49                                          
                   DISPLAY 'STUDENT GOT THIRD CLASS   '                 
              WHEN OTHER                                                
                   DISPLAY 'STUDENT FAILED            '                 
           END-EVALUATE.                                                
           STOP RUN.