Special names in Cobol Code.

anjani shanker · New User Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 37 Location: USA

Hello Everyone,

Could anyone please provide me with the details( How to Code What ) for the Special-Names in Configuration-section of Environment Division. If you can provide me with some sample codes then it would be very handy to me.

Thanks,
Anjani

CICS Guy · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:31 am

Have you looked at the examples in Describing the computing environment?

anjani shanker · New User Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 37 Location: USA

Hi,

I did go thru the link provided to me by you. Few things i could figure out and few i need to be more clear with.

1) For defining Class if "CLASS DIGIT IS "0" THROUGH "9"" is coded then while doing coding in Proc Div, if i accept a digit from in a varible, say WS-VAR and evaluate it like:

Evalaute WS-VAR
When Digit
display "Special-Names is working"
when others
go to exit-para
end-evalute.

Would this work? or do i need to still mention the 88 level definition for WS-VAR? If I need to mention the later then how can "CLASS DIGIT IS "0" THROUGH "9"" come handy.
Can you explain this with a dummy code.

2) Regarding "SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS BACKSPACE IS 23": How would this be made handy in Proc Div?

3) Also I have mentioned a stmt in special names as "Currency Sign is "*"". Now in proc div i need to display this currency sign with a var say Total.

What would be coded in Proc Div.
Is it going to be

display sign total or

display "*" total.

Thanks in advance for all d explanations comin my way. I have never worked on the Special-names things before so I need some very down to earth explations.

Anjani.

anjani shanker · New User Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 37 Location: USA

There might be some silly mistake in my questions that I have asked you but still I am looking forward to whatever explanations that could come my way.

Waiting for replies and

for the implementing this.

dick scherrer · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:27 am

Hello,

mftrigger · New User Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 23 Location: chennai

Anjani,

Answers for your queries:

1) WS-VAR need not be deifined as a 88 level variable. Direct checking with Digit would work ..

2) Regarding "SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS BACKSPACE IS 23".. Instead of moving 23, for readability we use BACKSPACE.

3) If u have mentioned a stmt in special names as "Currency Sign is "*"". Now in proc div u need to display this currency sign with a var say Total, then u CAN use either

display sign total or

display "*" total.

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

I need to decalre 2 special-names under configuration section. I have a requirement as below-

I have a input file and i have to validate two field of the input file.

1st Field --> X(6) --> Allowed charactors (0 to 9, B to Z)
2nd Field --> X(8) --> Allowed charactors (0 to 9, A to Z, #, @, *)

I have defined the SPECIAL-NAMES as below-- but it is giving a compile error on ALSO keyword.

mftrigger · New User Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 23 Location: chennai

Deepak,

Can u try in two ALSO lines. ..

'*' ALSO '@'
'@' ALSO '#'.

instead of

'*' ALSO '@' ALSO '#'

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

Not working! Still giving a same error...

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:25 pm

Ronald Burr · Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:38 pm

@deepak_munjal - 'ALSO' is not part of the syntax for the CLASS clause - just remove it and code (for example):

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

Yes Dick! I am doing compare byte per byte only.
Also, validation of 1st field using WS-VALID-SEDOL is working perfectly fine.

With below, no compile error but its not working fine to validate the 2nd field. I mean not considering '*' or '@' etc...

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

@Ronald.. thanks But this is also not validating the CUSIPS(2nd Field)..

Ronald Burr · Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:48 pm

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

Yes, WS-VALID-CUSIP is not validating the CUSIP and process goes down with SOC7. It should go to end-para. And then read and process th next CUSIP and so on.. Validation process is same for 1st field (SEDOL) also which is working fine.

Value of the CUSIP Field is

Ronald Burr · Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:12 pm

It is not clear from the code presented why you might be abending with a S0C7. However two things should be noted:
1) As I stated earlier, you do NOT have to examine the test-field byte-by-byte. If the field being tested is invalid if it contains ANY character other than those specified in the CLASS being applied, then the entire field can be validated at once - e.g.

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

Thanks for the above 2 changes..
I have made the change and its working fine.

but still strugling with validation of 2nd Field(CUSIP)..

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

Do you know if CLASS allow these special characters #, @, * etc.. ?
If not how i can define a data-type field which includes these special characters..
I checked in the some PPTs but didn't get the desired solution..

Ronald Burr · Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:09 pm

Yes, the CLASS clause allows for any of the 256 possible EBCDIC character values.

Please show the code line defining RU-CUSIP

and try the following

deepak_munjal · New User Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Mumbai

@Ronald... I checked this number of times...
It is not validating when any of the case incurred i.e. @, # or *.

Ronald Burr · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 1:49 am

You are either not following the code I suggested or are not telling us everything we need to know about your code. I compiled and executed the following program:

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:05 am

Deepak,

you were asked to perform a simple coding change and paste the result.
all you give us is

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:09 am

Ronald,
I expect Deepak will respond with:
"
that is the same way I coded it, but it doesn't work
maybe something is wrong with our operating system,
sure could not be me....
"

Robert Sample · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:14 am

Ronald Burr · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:35 am

In over 40 YEARS of mainframe programming, I have personally encountered TWO (count 'em, 2) problems that were directly related to SYSTEM software.
The first was a very specific COBOL program that, when compiled and executed (on an IBM 360 mod 30, if I remember correctly), sucked the internal reader dry - meaning that every job in the queue "disappeared". My job was cancelled - and upon resubmission, did the same exact thing. At a loss, we re-arranged several of the elements in Working-Storage, and swapped the location of a couple of PERFORMED Paragraphs and voila! the program worked just fine. We chalked the problem up to a one-in-a-million page boundary problem of some sort. Never saw anything like it again.
The second problem was an IBM VS-COBOL subroutine that was called to handle the multiplication of two large numbers. It didn't calculate the result correctly. I dissassembled the subroutine, found the error, fixed it (in my private library), and re-ran with a STEPLIB and it worked fine. I notified IBM of the problem (and the fix), and they did eventually sent out a PTF (about 3-months later).

So far, SYSTEM: 2, RON: N-2. Sounds like an echo in here, in here.