Welcome to IBM® COBOL for Windows®, IBM's COBOL compiler for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
There are some differences between host and workstation COBOL. For details about language and system differences between COBOL for Windows and Enterprise COBOL for z/OS®, see Appendix A. Summary of differences with host COBOL.
The XHTML format of this document is accessible to visually impaired individuals who use a screen reader.
To enable your screen reader to accurately read syntax diagrams, source code examples, and text that contains the period or comma PICTURE symbols, you must set the screen reader to speak all punctuation.
This document will help you write, compile, link-edit, and run your IBM COBOL for Windows programs. It will also help you define object-oriented classes and methods, invoke methods, and refer to objects in your programs.
This document assumes experience in developing application programs and some knowledge of COBOL. It focuses on using COBOL to meet your programming objectives and not on the definition of the COBOL language. For complete information on COBOL syntax, see COBOL for Windows Language Reference.
This document also assumes familiarity with Windows. For information on Windows, see your operating system documentation.
Certain terms are used in a shortened form in this document. Abbreviations for the product names used most frequently are listed alphabetically in the table below.
| Term used | Long form |
|---|---|
| CICS® | IBM TXSeries® |
| COBOL for Windows | IBM COBOL for Windows |
| DB2® | Database 2™ |
| RSD | Record sequential delimited file system |
| STL | standard language file system |
In addition to these abbreviated terms, the term “Standard COBOL 85” is used in this document to refer to the combination of the following standards:
The ISO standards are identical to the American National Standards.
Other terms, if not commonly understood, are shown in italics the first time they appear and are listed in the glossary at the back of this document.
Use the following description to read the syntax diagrams in this information:
The >>—- symbol indicates the beginning of a syntax diagram.
The —-> symbol indicates that the syntax diagram is continued on the next line.
The >—- symbol indicates that the syntax diagram is continued from the previous line.
The —->< symbol indicates the end of a syntax diagram.
Diagrams of syntactical units other than complete statements start with the >—- symbol and end with the —-> symbol.
>>-required_item-----------------------------------------------><
>>-required_item--+---------------+---------------------------->< '-optional_item-'
>>-required_item--+-required_choice1-+------------------------->< '-required_choice2-'
If choosing one of the items is optional, the entire stack appears below the main path.
>>-required_item--+------------------+------------------------->< +-optional_choice1-+ '-optional_choice2-'
If one of the items is the default, it appears above the main path and the remaining choices are shown below.
.-default_choice--. >>-required_item--+-----------------+-------------------------->< +-optional_choice-+ '-optional_choice-'
.-----------------. V | >>-required_item----repeatable_item-+--------------------------><
If the repeat arrow contains a comma, you must separate repeated items with a comma.
.-,---------------. V | >>-required_item----repeatable_item-+--------------------------><
This document shows numerous examples of sample COBOL statements, program fragments, and small programs to illustrate the coding techniques being discussed. The examples of program code are written in lowercase, uppercase, or mixed case to demonstrate that you can write your programs in any of these ways.
To more clearly separate some examples from the explanatory text, they are presented in a monospace font.
COBOL keywords and compiler options that appear in text are generally shown in SMALL UPPERCASE. Other terms such as program variable names are sometimes shown in an italic font for clarity.