Introduction
Provides a general description of COBOL and a brief look at the structure of a COBOL program.
 | The characteristics of COBOL |
| The four major components of COBOL programs |
| The purpose of specifications and instructions |
| The coding rules for and use of data names, reserved words, numeric literals and non-numeric literals |
Programming Considerations
Identifies programming information to consider before starting to code a COBOL program.
| Three preliminary steps to perform before coding |
| Specifications for student's first COBOL program |
| The standard COBOL coding format |
| The coding rules for division headers, section headers, paragraph headers and processing statements |
Identification Division
Provides a description of the first division of a COBOL program and an explanation of its use.
| The correct coding of required entries: division header and PROGRAM-ID paragraph |
| Optional information that may be coded |
Environment Division
Describes the second division of a COBOL program. Covers the details about coding information in two frequently coded sections: Configuration and Input-Output.
| The coding of the SOURCE-COMPUTER and OBJECT-COMPUTER paragraphs |
| The FILE-CONTROL paragraph |
| The SELECT statement and its associated clauses |
Data Division
Describes the third division of a COBOL program and covers the coding requirements for the two sections of this division: File and Working-Storage.
| File descriptions (FD) within the File Section |
| The purpose of these FD clauses: LABEL RECORDS, RECORD CONTAINS, BLOCK CONTAINS and DATA RECORD |
| Record descriptions within the File Section |
| The coding of levels, group items and elementary items within a data hierarchy structure |
| The reserved word FILLER |
| PICTURE clauses |
| Data storage areas |
| Storage areas in the Working-Storage Section |
| VALUE clauses |
Procedure Division
Introduces the fourth and final division of a COBOL program. Presents a structure chart of the sample program which delineates the paragraphs needed in the Procedure Division and the next four units of this course.
| Routines (paragraphs) in this division |
| Coding requirements for this division |
Initial Paragraph
Covers four statements in the initial paragraph of the Procedure Division in the sample program:
| The OPEN, CLOSE and STOP RUN statements |
| The PERFORM statement |
| A simple PERFORM format and the UNTIL format |
Processing Paragraph
Contains the instructions to process the billing transactions in the sample program.
| The MOVE and IF statements |
| Non-numeric and numeric moves and comparisons |
| Coding requirements for the operands |
Reading Paragraph
Covers the use of the READ statement to read the input billing transactions in the sample program.
| The READ statement |
Writing Paragraph
Covers the use of the COBOL WRITE statement to write the output billing records in the last paragraph of the sample program's Procedure Division.
| The WRITE statement |
Additional Specifications
Explains how to modify a completed program by adding specifications. Discusses arithmetic operations and printing as they apply to counting and recording the number of records output from the student's sample program.
| Computations in COBOL programming |
| The format of ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY and DIVIDE statements |
| Three ways to record printed data from a program |
| The DISPLAY statement |
Compiling the Program
Discusses general information about the process of compiling a program. Focuses on the printed outputs created from a compile and the procedures usually available to run compiles.
| The source statement listing |
| The compiler error listing and the cross-reference listings |
| Three JCL procedures to run compiles |
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