Initialize the tally counter IN INSPECT

Arun Raj · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:40 pm

Is it compulsory to initialize the tally counter used along with the INSPECT TALLYING option?If the counter is left uninitialized I am getting SOC7error.
What could be the reason?

Thanks
Arun

William Thompson · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:53 pm

From the fine manual:
identifier-2 Is the count field, and must be an elementary integer item defined without the symbol P in its PICTURE character-string. identifier-2 cannot be an external floating-point item. You must initialize identifier-2 before execution of the INSPECT statement begins.

cobolunni · Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:10 pm

The counter must be initialized because when each inspect takes place
the internal operation is
COUNT = COUNT + 1
ie when each character that we specified founds in the inspecting identifier the internal operation of count increment takes place
so if we left COUNTER uninitialized the calculation will result in abend because there may be some junk values in COUNTER that are not numeric