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pokhande
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Joined: 14 Apr 2010
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01 A
05 B PIC X(3) value 'ABC'.
05 C redefines B PIC 9(3).
If I DISPLAY C,what would be the output? |
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gylbharat
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| You can run and check this.... Right?? |
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pokhande
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| At present I dont have access to Mainframe system.. Can you please let me know what would be the result of it |
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PeterHolland
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| Download Z390, you can test it on your PC. |
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rakesh1155
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| What makes you think the value would be something other than 'ABC' ? |
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pokhande
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| How can a numeric data item have value as 'ABC' ? |
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nigelosberry
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| pokhande wrote: |
01 A
05 B PIC X(3) value 'ABC'.
05 C redefines B PIC 9(3).
If I DISPLAY C,what would be the output? |
Yes, the best way as someone suggested is to test it yourself.
Anyways, here's a little hint.
Try to look at the ebcdic code(hex content) of 'ABC'. You may see a series of bytes that form a valid number. |
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Bill Woodger
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It depends.
There is no problem with any or all bytes of a numeric field simply containing any of the possible 256 values of an 8-bit byte. Problems can come when you start to use the data.
"ABC" looks like this in "hex": C1C2C3
"123" looks like this in "hex": F1F2F3
The leftmost "F"s are called Zones, and the rightmost "F" is the sign. When using for calculation, the Zones get thrown away (so can actually be anything) but the sign must be valid. Valid signs are mostly C (positive) D (negative) and F (unsigned).
So, "ABC", if you try to use it like a number, will "work". Ie it will not S0C7, and you'll have rubbish infiltrating your fine clean data. Which is why you have to validate every external source of numeric items.
What specifically do you see when you DISPLAY it? Either "ABC" or "AB3" depending on the setting of the compiler option NUMPROC would be my guess, though I'm unable to try it myself. |
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Robert Sample
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| Quote: |
| How can a numeric data item have value as 'ABC' ? |
Because you are making one of the fundamental errors people new to COBOL make. Just because a variable is DEFINED as numeric does not mean it will always have numbers in it. A USAGE DISPLAY variable such as you have defined can have numbers, yes, but it is not required too -- it is perfectly valid to do the redefine as in the first post. |
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rakesh1155
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Very Nice Explanation Bill Woodger!!
Though I am NOT the original poster looking for the answer, But it definitely helps. |
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pokhande
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| Thanks Bill.. It is of great help to me |
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Bill Woodger
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Joined: 09 Mar 2011
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rakesh1155 and pokhande,
Glad it helps.
As Robert is indicating, there is no problem with the redefines. There will be occasions where you have a file where sometimes a field on the file contains non-numeric data (text, for instance) and sometimes it contains numeric data. There will be something on the file which tells you which to use at the time. Just don't use them at the wrong field at the wrong time. This was a common way of "saving space" in file layouts. Maybe happens less these days, but you'll probably come across it. Just don't mix them up! I even think one of the examples in the Cobol manual is of this type, check it out. |
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