To get theSize of Cobol Field

vijaysharma · New User Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Bangalore

Hi

I want to get the COBOL field size

Lets say I have filed defined in copy book

01 E-Name pic x(40).

move 'Vijay' to E-Name.

If i use the Length function it will always return me the actual length of field i.e, 40.

But i want get the variable size in program , in the above example it should be 5 ('V i j a y ' is 5 letters).

PS let me know is there any function available in COBOL
?

Thanks in Advance

Vijay Sharma

William Thompson · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:19 pm

Sorry, the SIZE is 40 characters....
You want the length of valid data (and who is to say trailing blanks are not valid).
You will have to unstring the data or examine tallying the data with your own rules for defining 'what is valid data and where does it end' to determine the length.

dick scherrer · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:49 pm

Hello,

One way to get what you want is to redefine the field as an array, point to the right-most character, and compare if a space. If it is a space, decrement the pointer and check again. When you come to the first non-blank byte, the value in the pointer is the "length" of the data. This will accomodate embedded spaces which is common in name fields.

Mickeydusaor · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:02 pm

You could use the cobol REVERSE FUNCTION and process this field
until you come to the first non blank.

mmwife · Super Moderator Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 1592

A variation on Mickey D's solution:

INSPECT FUNCTION REVERSE(TEXT1) TALLYING L FOR LEADING SPACES
COMPUTE L = LENGTH OF TEXT1 - L

vijaysharma · New User Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Bangalore

Hi All

Thank You For all Eur quick Response..

regards

Vijay Sharma