ILE COBOL Language Reference

INSPECT Statement Considerations

+-------------------------------IBM Extension--------------------------------+

If any identifiers or literals other than identifier-2 (the count field) are DBCS items, then all of them must be DBCS items.

Identifier-2 cannot be a DBCS item. DBCS characters, not bytes of data, are tallied in identifier-2.

All identifiers, except identifier-2 (the count field), can be external floating-point items. External floating-point items are treated as if redefined as alphanumeric with the INSPECT statement referring to the alphanumeric item.

+----------------------------End of IBM Extension----------------------------+

Except when the BEFORE or AFTER phrase is specified, inspection begins at the leftmost character position of the inspected item (identifier-1) and proceeds character-by-character to the rightmost position.

The operands of the following phrases are compared in the left-to-right order in which they are specified in the INSPECT statement:

If any identifier is subscripted, reference modified, or is a function-identifier, the subscript, reference-modifier, or function is evaluated only once as the first operation in the execution of the INSPECT statement.


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