Need information about COPY verb in Cobol?

sivasaras · New User Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 17 Location: chenna/i-

Hi,

I have 3 copybooks and i want to add 2 new fields to one of the copybook and i want to use it in one of the program,but that copybook is used by many programs, how can we use COPY verb in this case?

Thanks in Advance

Regards,
Siva

CICS Guy · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:37 am Post subject:

Will the adding of the two fields change the displacement of any other fields?
Will the adding of the two fields change the length of the copybooks?

Anuj Dhawan

Aaru

siva,

sivasaras · New User Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 17 Location: chenna/i-

Hi,

Let me clear my question.

There is only 1 copybook which can be used by many programs,now i want to add 2 fields to that copybook and has to be used in one of the program,whether it is possible?

If we add 2 fields means we cannot use that copybook for many programs right because only one program needs changes?

Regards,
Siva

Robert Sample · Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:11 am Post subject:

The answer to your questions is ... it depends. If the fields are added to the end of the copy book, and the copy book is not defining a file layout or CICS COMMAREA (just a WORKING-STORAGE layout), then you can add the fields to the copy book. As programs that invoke the copy book are recompiled, they will pick up the two new fields but there's no reason to go back and recompile them just for the new data.

If you are not adding the fields to the end of the copy book, or the copy book is used for a file record layout (or CICS COMMAREA layout), then you probably want to recompile every program using the copy book to ensure they are consistent. Or, you can create a new version of the copy book with a new name for just the programs that need the new fields. What is done usually depends to some degree upon site standards.

enrico-sorichetti

William Thompson

Chirantan Banerjee · Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 3:02 pm Post subject:

Well, not sure what you are exactly looking for, but if the problem is like -
I want to add two new fields at the end of a group variable that has been defined in a copybook and want to use it in only one of the programs out of a total of n programs which uses the cooybook, Then you may try this out -

COPY COPYBOOK.
05 NEW-VARIABLE01 PIC X.
05 NEW-VARIABLE02 PIC X.

Assuming that the content of the copybook is something like this -

01 GROUP-VARIABLE-NAME.
05 VAR1 PIC X.
05 VAR2 PIC X.
05 VAR3 PIC X.
.........

And so on.

You may also declare the 2 new variables in a new copybook and use it as -

COPY COPYBOOK.
COPY NEWCOPY.
where newcopy is the name of the new copybook. This should work.

But if you want to add the new fields somewhere in the middle, then this won't work and maybe having a separate copybook for this one program that you need to change will be a better idea.

sivasaras · New User Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 17 Location: chenna/i-

Hi all,

Thanks for all your replies.

Regards,
Siva

kailas girase · New User Joined: 20 Nov 2008 Posts: 7 Location: New Bombay

If we want to use same copybook multiple times in same program then we can use REPLACING keyword.

Anuj Dhawan · Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:01 pm Post subject:

Just being little picky - what if there is 'nothing' to be "replaced" in copybook (to be used multiple times)?

Chirantan Banerjee · Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 10:18 am Post subject: