Beginning COBOL for Programmers

Beginning COBOL for Programmers

Released March 2014
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430262534

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Book description

Beginning COBOL for Programmers is a comprehensive, sophisticated tutorial and modular skills reference on the COBOL programming language for established programmers. This book is for you if you are a developer who would like to—or must—add COBOL to your repertoire. Perhaps you recognize the opportunities presented by the current COBOL skills crisis, or are working in a mission critical enterprise which retains legacy COBOL applications. Whatever your situation, Beginning COBOL for Programmers meets your needs as an established programmer moving to COBOL.

Beginning COBOL for Programmers includes comprehensive coverage of ANS 85 COBOL features and techniques, including control structures, condition names, sequential and direct access files, data redefinition, string handling, decimal arithmetic, subprograms, and the report writer. The final chapter includes a substantial introduction to object-oriented COBOL.

Benefiting from over one hundred example programs, you'll receive an extensive introduction to the core and advanced features of the COBOL language and will learn to apply these through comprehensive and varied exercises. If you've inherited some legacy COBOL, you'll be able to grasp the COBOL idioms, understand the constructs, and recognize what's happening in the code you're working with.

Today's enterprise application developers will find that COBOL skills open new—or old—doors, and this extensive COBOL reference is the book to help you acquire and develop your COBOL skills.

What you'll learn

  • The basics of COBOL and its control structures

  • How to declare and manipulate data, including tabular data

  • How to handle sequential, indexed, and relative files

  • How to SORT data and use Input and Output procedures

  • How to SEARCH tabular data

  • How to use contained and external subprograms to create modular programs

  • How to use the COBOL Report Writer

  • How to write ISO 2002 object-oriented COBOL programs

    • Who this book is for

    This book is for established programmers looking for a COBOL tutorial and modular skills reference in one handy book. Whether you have inherited some legacy COBOL and need to maintain it, or you have a fresh COBOL project in front of you, the tutorial and skills reference will help you succeed in COBOL.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Dedication
    3. Contents at a Glance
    4. Contents
    5. About the Author
    6. About the Technical Reviewer
    7. Acknowledgments
    8. Preface
    9. CHAPTER 1: Introduction to COBOL
      1. What Is COBOL?
      2. History of COBOL
      3. The Argument for COBOL (Why COBOL?)
      4. Summary
      5. References
    10. CHAPTER 2: COBOL Foundation
      1. COBOL Idiosyncrasies
      2. COBOL Syntax Metalanguage
      3. Structure of COBOL Programs
      4. The Four Divisions
      5. COBOL Coding Rules
      6. Example Programs
      7. Where to Get a COBOL Compiler
      8. Summary
      9. References
    11. CHAPTER 3: Data Declaration in COBOL
      1. Categories of Program Data
      2. Declaring Elementary Data Items
      3. Assignment in COBOL
      4. Structured Data
      5. Summary
    12. CHAPTER 4: Procedure Division Basics
      1. Input and Output with ACCEPT and DISPLAY
      2. Arithmetic in COBOL
      3. Let’s Write a Program
      4. Summary
    13. CHAPTER 5: Control Structures: Selection
      1. Selection
      2. IF Statement
      3. Condition Types
      4. Implied Subjects
      5. Nested IFs
      6. Delimiting Scope: END-IF vs. Period
      7. Condition Names
      8. EVALUATE
      9. Summary
      10. References
    14. CHAPTER 6: Control Structures: Iteration
      1. Paragraphs Revisited
      2. The PERFORM Verb
      3. PERFORM..TIMES
      4. PERFORM..UNTIL
      5. PERFORM..VARYING
      6. Summary
      7. References
    15. CHAPTER 7: Introduction to Sequential Files
      1. What Is a File?
      2. Processing Sequential Files
      3. Summary
    16. CHAPTER 8: Advanced Sequential Files
      1. Files with Multiple Record Types
      2. Printer Sequential Files
      3. Variable-Length Records
      4. Summary
    17. CHAPTER 9: Edited Pictures
      1. Edited Pictures
      2. Formatting Output
      3. Types of Editing
      4. Editing Symbols
      5. Insertion Editing
      6. Suppression-and-Replacement Editing
      7. Example Print Lines
      8. PICTURE String Restrictions
      9. The PICTURE Clause Scaling Symbol
      10. Summary
    18. CHAPTER 10: Processing Sequential Files
      1. File Organization vs. Method of Access
      2. Sequential Organization
      3. Control-Break Processing
      4. Updating Sequential Files
      5. The Full File Update Problem
      6. Summary
    19. CHAPTER 11: Creating Tabular Data
      1. Tables vs. Arrays
      2. Declaring Tables
      3. Why Use Tabular Data?
      4. Multidimensional Tables
      5. Prefilled Tables
      6. ANS 85 Table Changes
      7. Summary
    20. CHAPTER 12: Advanced Data Declaration
      1. The Redefines Clause
      2. The REDEFINES Clause
      3. The RENAMES Clause
      4. The USAGE Clause
      5. Decimal Arithmetic
      6. Summary
      7. References
    21. CHAPTER 13: Searching Tabular Data
      1. SEARCHING Tabular Data
      2. Searching Using SEARCH and SEARCH ALL
      3. The SEARCH Verb
      4. The SEARCH ALL Verb
      5. Variable-Length Tables
      6. Summary
    22. CHAPTER 14: Sorting and Merging
      1. SORTING
      2. Merging Files
      3. Summary
    23. CHAPTER 15: String Manipulation
      1. The INSPECT Verb
      2. String Concatenation
      3. String Splitting
      4. Reference Modification
      5. Intrinsic Functions
      6. Summary
    24. CHAPTER 16: Creating Large Systems
      1. Subprograms and the COPY Verb
      2. The CALL Verb
      3. The COPY Verb
      4. Summary
    25. CHAPTER 17: Direct Access Files
      1. Direct Access vs.Sequential Files
      2. Organization of Relative Files
      3. Processing Relative Files
      4. Relative Files: Syntax and Semantics
      5. Organization of Indexed Files
      6. Processing Indexed Files
      7. Indexed Files: Syntax and Semantics
      8. Comparison of COBOL File Organizations
      9. Summary
      10. Introduction
    26. CHAPTER 18: The COBOL Report Writer
      1. Report Writer
      2. Declaratives
      3. Summary
      4. Introduction
      5. File Descriptions
      6. Print Specification
    27. CHAPTER 19: OO-COBOL
      1. Module Strength and Module Coupling
      2. Informational-Strength Modules in COBOL
      3. OO-COBOL
      4. A Formal Introduction to OO-COBOL
      5. Summary
    28. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Beginning COBOL for Programmers
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: March 2014
    • Publisher(s): Apress
    • ISBN: 9781430262534