Procedure pointers are data items defined with the USAGE IS PROCEDURE-POINTER clause. Function pointers are data items defined with the USAGE IS FUNCTION-POINTER clause.
In this information, “pointer” refers to either a procedure-pointer data item or a function-pointer data item. You can set either of these data items to contain entry addresses of, or pointers to, these entry points:
You can set a pointer data item only by using the SET statement. For example:
CALL 'MyCFunc' RETURNING ptr. SET proc-ptr TO ptr. CALL proc-ptr USING dataname.
Suppose that you set a pointer item to an entry address in a load module that is called by a CALL identifier statement, and your program later cancels that called module. The pointer item becomes undefined, and reference to it thereafter is not reliable.
related references
PROCEDURE-POINTER phrase
(COBOL for Windows Language Reference)
SET statement
(COBOL for Windows Language Reference)