LENGTH and LENGTH OF in cobol

humpty · New User Joined: 01 May 2005 Posts: 23

what is the difference between LENGTH and LENGTH OF in cobol?

gskulkarni · New User Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 70

Crudely classifying these two,
"Length" is a intrinsic function operated of variables
"Length OF" is a special register

Coding either Function Length(variable_name) or LENGTH OF Variable-Name would return the same result? the length of variable-Name in bytes.
Whereas the LENGTH function can only be used where arithmetic expressions are allowed, the LENGTH OF special register can be used in a greater variety of contexts.
For example, the LENGTH OF special register can be used as an argument
to an intrinsic function that allows integer arguments. (An intrinsic function cannot be used as an operand to the LENGTH OF special register.) The LENGTH OF special register can also be used as a parameter in a CALL statement.

abhishekraghav · New User Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 9 Location: Pune

The LENGTH is a function that returns an integer equal to the length of the argument in bytes. The function type is integer. and it returns a 9 bytes integer.

While LENGTH OF is an special register, 4 bytes in size i dont know the exactly purpose of this register. may be it is used to store length of variables.

If any one knows purpose of the LENGTH OF then please write.

humpty · New User Joined: 01 May 2005 Posts: 23

i also believe that LENGTH should the number of characters in the argument, but this is not the case. this also includes the filler thus varying the size of the argument,

okay,
go for the example.

WS-STRING PIC X(20).
WS-COUNT PIC X(4)

MOVE 'ABCD' TO WS-STRING
MOVE FUNCTION LENGTH (WS-STRING) TO WS-COUNT

what will be the value of ws-count.
i know u may say it 4, but the result is other than 4.

any suggestions...........?

manisha-s · New User Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 13

if code is like this

ws-string pic x(20).
ws-count pic 99.

move 'abcd' to ws-string.
move length(ws-string) to ws-count.
display ws-count

result:
20