ILE COBOL basic formats are presented in a uniform system of syntax notation.
This notation, designed to assist you in writing COBOL source statements,
is explained in the following paragraphs:
COBOL keywords and optional words appear in uppercase letters; for example:
MOVE
They must be spelled exactly as shown. If any keyword is
missing, the compiler considers it as an error.
Variables representing user-supplied names or values appear in all lowercase
letters; for example:
parmx
For easier text reference, some words are followed by a hyphen and a digit
or a letter, as in:
identifier–1
This suffix does
not change the syntactical definition of the word.
Arithmetic and logical operators (+, -, *, /, **, >, <, =, >=, and <=)
that appear in syntax formats are required. These operators are special character reserved words. For a complete listing of ILE COBOL reserved
words, see Appendix E. ILE COBOL Reserved Word List.
All punctuation and other special characters appearing in the diagram are required by the syntax of the format
when they are shown; if you leave them out, an error occurs in the program.
You must write the required clauses and the optional clauses (when used)
in the order shown in the diagram unless the associated rules explicitly state
otherwise.