ILE COBOL Language Reference
The value of a parameter passed through the BY REFERENCE phrase is
evaluated when the CALL statement runs. This value is assigned to the
corresponding parameter of the called program. The number of characters
in each parameter must be equal; however, the data descriptions need not
be the same.
When an ILE COBOL parameter is passed BY REFERENCE, a pointer to the
original data item passes to the called program. Because of this, a
change to a parameter in a called program will result in a change to a data
item in a calling program.
- identifier-2
- Must be defined as a level-01, level-77, or elementary data item in
the File, Working-Storage, Local-Storage or Linkage Sections. Must not be a function-identifier.
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It can be a:
- Data item of any level in the Data Division
- Pointer data item (an item defined implicitly or explicitly as USAGE IS
POINTER)
- Procedure-pointer data item
- DBCS data item
- National data item
- Floating-point data item
- Date-time data item.
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- ADDRESS OF special register
- For information about this special register, see page "ADDRESS OF Special Register". Note that the calculated ADDRESS OF is not allowed
in this case.
- file-name-1
- Must appear in an FD entry. It passes a null pointer data
item.
- OMITTED
- For standard parameters when a parameter is passed BY REFERENCE, a pointer
to the original data item is passed to the called program. When OMITTED
is specified, a NULL pointer is passed to the called program. In this
case, the called program will use its default value.
OMITTED can only be specified on calls to programs with a LINKAGE TYPE of
procedure.
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