How binary is stored as COMP variable

rohin · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:20 pm

Hi,

I didnot understand how binary is stored as COMP variable?
S9(4) COMP is stored in 2 bytes.
How is value 32768 or -32767 stored as COMP, as in how will it look like if I turn HEX ON?

THanks

William Thompson · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:47 pm

Actually +32768 is one too big to fit and -32767 is one less than the negitive max. the real limits are -32768 through +32767 which would be:
..
80
00
through
..
7F
FF

Phrzby Phil · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:55 pm

COBOL won't let you store anything bigger than +/- 9999 in an S9(4) COMP, as the replication numver = 4. (Although some 5-digit numbers can be stored in a halfword (2 bytes), not all can.)

You need S9(5) COMP thru S9(9) COMP, which allocates a fullword (4 bytes), and can store the max number of digits you specify.

prasadvrk · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:42 pm

I think the following link will not be amiss here ibmmainframes.com/viewtopic.php?t=19569&highlight=comp5

S9(04) COMP-5 can accomodate five digit data as opposed to S9(04)COMP
Pray be careful in using COMP-5 as it has some machine dependency.