Generate report with out using IF/EVALUATE

bbharathiraj · New User Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 50 Location: Chennai

Dear Friends,

Below question was raised by my collegue. I tried all the way with my COBOL knoweldge but couldn't find solution

Question:
How to generate the below report with out using IF/EVALUATE with input file contains 2 fileds 1) Salary 2) Employee number.

Peter cobolskolan · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 10:30 am

Are you sure your college is a programmer?
The basics in all programming languages are IFs and different types of EVALUATE.

bbharathiraj · New User Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 50 Location: Chennai

Yes. He is working with me for last 6 years as developer

Bill Woodger · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 11:20 am

Just hard-code the report lines and DISPLAY them.

Unless you can come up with a very, very good reason for the question, we don't do "if magic could happen" answers.

don.leahy · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 6:39 pm

What is this, a bar bet?

Bill Woodger · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 6:49 pm

Thanks for that Don, I had been thing it was something real but stupid :-)

OK, search for the Cobol Report Writer manual. That'll do what your colleague has challenged you to with Cobol. Summing, totally, control-breaks etc, all you do is define that they need to be done and with what fields, and the "Report Writer" does the rest.

Pandora-Box · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:02 pm

All I see is that a simple sort job would it for to get a report without IF / EVALUATE statements

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:09 pm

Pandora-Box · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:12 pm

my mistake thanks for correction

bbharathiraj · New User Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 50 Location: Chennai

I just want to share with COBOL experts is there any solution for this since I take this question seriously.
I will post the possible solution if I get it from questioner

I think, as Bill recommended, Cobol Report writer might be the solution

Robert Sample · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 8:33 pm

First, it is an extremely poor question -- probably should be in the homework or interview questions section of this forum, not in the COBOL section.

Second, your colleague obviously wants you to explore COBOL Report Writer, which would be the ONLY way in COBOL to generate the given output without explicit IF statements (Report Writer has implicit IF statements for control breaks).

Third, COBOL Report Writer is NOT part of COBOL -- IBM lists it as a separate product with its own order number (5798-DYR, 5798-DZX for Report Writer versus 5655-S71 for Enterprise COBOL V4.1). So unless a site orders (and pays for) the Report Writer, that functionality will not be present so at many sites what you want to do is not possible, period.

Pandora-Box · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 8:33 pm

Hi Why dont you try this logic

Prerequisite the input file is sorted based on Salary

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 10:00 pm

Hello,

Looks pretty good to me providing there is no "scope creep". If there becomes an increase in the number of different "salaries", somethng would be needed to print headers on the next page.

Well done

d

Pandora-Box · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 10:13 pm

Thanks Dick and yes agreed to your point on the fresh header for next page

just trying to improve myself through vicarious experiences

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 10:21 pm

Hello,

Pandora-Box · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 10:30 pm

Sure cant stop myself

Bill Woodger · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 10:52 pm

I kind of like that too, pandora-box.

You would need to read another record :-)

You could even do the pagination with PERFORM UNTILs. If the test is true, the perform does not get done.

Going back to your own Sort suggestion, it is also not so bad. Do the report in Sort, then simply read/write in the Cobol program. Just a perform-until-end-of-file type of thing.

OK, wouldn't meet the input file requirement. So, to keep to the "spirit" of the Cobol-only and the input file, it might, I don't know, be possible to do the formatting of the report as a Cobol internal sort, then just do the printing.

So, although probably not the expected answer, though maybe it is, it is certainly not a bad answer to an odd question, pandora-box.

Oh, dear, it might also be easier than we are thinking.

How about, use the salary as a subscript? Normalise it first, add one. At end of file, empty table (PERFORM UNTIL for table PERFORM UNTIL for non-zero), turn the subscript back to a salary, do the running total. Pagination as above.

'Nuff now.

Pandora-Box · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 11:02 pm

Thanks Bill

I was pretty doubtful of adding another read then realised I might need it though couldnt edit my post that point of time .

Wish I get the moderating access one day so I could edit my post any point it time

I did understand the logic of yours. ..

Got to try it later point in time

Thanks about that

dick scherrer · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 12:12 am

Hello,

bbharathiraj · New User Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 50 Location: Chennai

Thanks Pandora!. its working

Pandora-Box · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 10:13 am

Glad its working

Marso · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 8:06 pm

Nice work, Pandora-Box

Pandora-Box · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 8:08 pm

Thanks Marso

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 8:14 pm

Pandora-Box,
though late, let me add my 'good job'!

worth much more than the question deserved.

Pandora-Box · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 8:16 pm

I am striving hard for more such good jobs :-) Hope i would be consistent :-)