COBOL for the 21st Century

Appendix C. Glossary

ACCEPT.

A statement used for reading in a low volume of input; unlike a READ, an ACCEPT does not require establishing a file with a SELECT statement, nor does it require an OPEN statement.

ADD.

A statement used for performing an addition operation.

AFTER ADVANCING.

An option with the WRITE statement that can cause the paper in a printer to space any number of lines before an output record is printed.

Alphanumeric field.

A field that can contain any character.

Alphanumeric literal.

See nonnumeric literal.

ALTERNATE RECORD KEY.

An option that allows an indexed file to be created with, and accessed by, more than one identifying key.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

An organization of academic, business, and government users that develops standards in a wide variety of areas, including programming.

Applications package.

A prewritten program or set of programs designed to perform user-specified tasks. Contrast with customized programs.

Applications program.

A program designed to perform user-specified tasks. It may be part of an applications package or it may be a customized program. Contrast with operating systems software.

Applications programmer.

The computer professional who writes the set of instructions in an applications program. Same as software developer.

Area A.

Columns 8–11 of a COBOL coding sheet or program; some COBOL entries must begin in Area A, that is, column 8.

Area B.

Columns 12–72 of a COBOL coding sheet or program; most COBOL entries must begin in Area ...