Rational Developer for System z
COBOL for Windows, Version 7.5, Programming Guide


About this document

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.

Accessibility of this document

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.

How this document will help you

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.

Abbreviated terms

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.

How to read syntax diagrams

Use the following description to read the syntax diagrams in this information:

Link to detail.

 

How examples are shown

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.


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