An imperative statement either specifies an unconditional action to be taken by
the program, or is a conditional statement terminated by its explicit scope
terminator (see Delimited Scope Statements). A series of imperative statements can
be specified whenever an imperative statement is allowed.
Table 1 lists COBOL imperative statements.
Table 1. Types of Imperative Statements| Type |
Imperative Statement |
| Arithmetic |
ADD¹
COMPUTE¹
DIVIDE¹
INSPECT (TALLYING)
MULTIPLY¹
SUBTRACT¹
|
| Data Manipulation |
ACCEPT (DATE, DAY, DAY-OF-WEEK, TIME)
INITIALIZE
INSPECT (CONVERTING)
INSPECT (REPLACING)
MOVE
SET
STRING²
UNSTRING²
IBM Extension
End of IBM Extension |
| Ending |
STOP RUN
EXIT PROGRAM
IBM Extension GOBACK
End of IBM Extension |
| Input⁄Output |
ACCEPT⁶ identifier
CLOSE
DELETE³
DISPLAY⁶
OPEN
READ⁴
REWRITE³
SET (for UPSI switches)
START³
STOP literal
WRITE⁵
IBM Extension ACQUIRE
COMMIT
DROP
ROLLBACK
End of IBM Extension |
| Ordering |
MERGE
RELEASE
RETURN
SORT
|
| Procedure Branching |
ALTER
EXIT
GO TO
PERFORM
|
| Subprogram Linkage |
CALL⁷
CANCEL
|
| Table Handling |
SET |
Notes to Table 1:
- ¹
- Without the ON SIZE ERROR or NOT ON SIZE ERROR phrase.
- ²
- Without the NOT ON OVERFLOW or ON OVERFLOW phrase.
- ³
- Without the INVALID KEY or NOT INVALID KEY phrase.
- ⁴
- Without the AT END, NOT AT END, INVALID KEY, NO DATA, or NOT INVALID
KEY phrase.
- ⁵
- Without the INVALID KEY, NOT INVALID KEY, END-OF-PAGE, or NOT END-OF-PAGE
phrase.
- ⁶
- Without the ON EXCEPTION or NOT ON EXCEPTION phrase.
- ⁷
- Without the ON OVERFLOW, ON EXCEPTION, or NOT ON EXCEPTION phrase.