Question

COBOL "pic x(08)" "pic 9(02)"

Asked by: daveslash


I apologize for my ignorance and aging memory, but it's been over 20 years since I last programmed in COBOL.  (At the time, I was working at NCR in San Diego.  That's seems like a LIFETIME ago.)

Today, a client sent me a flat-file-layout in COBOL's "pic" form.

e.g.
ClientID pic x(04)
RecType pic 9(02)
...

I need to translate that into SQL database terms.

So, does the "x" indicate alphanumeric?  Does the "9" indicate numeric-only?  Does the number in parentheses indicate the field-length?

Thanks!
DaveSlash

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Asked On
2008-02-15 at 15:09:16ID23167614
Tags

cobol pic x(04) 9(02)

Topics

COBOL Programming Language

,

Miscellaneous Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: RQuadlingPosted on 2008-02-15 at 15:13:51ID: 20906902

Pretty much.

http://www.csis.ul.ie/COBOL/Course/DataDeclaration.htm#part2

So, pix x(04) is picture xxxx and pic 9(02) is picture 99

 

by: RQuadlingPosted on 2008-02-15 at 15:16:15ID: 20906914

Don't worry about showing your age. I learnt cobol in 6 hours for an exam around 25 years ago. Never used it since!

Got 98%.

Never knew why I didn't get 100%.

Ha!

Having said that, I did then spend 15 years programming in Sage Retrieve 4GL, which uses a syntax which is a mixture of COBOL and Pascal.

define number Age [4.0], Price [15.4]

sort of stuff.

 

by: daveslashPosted on 2008-02-15 at 15:31:19ID: 20906997


Thanks!

That was quick and easy.

-- DaveSlash

 

by: RQuadlingPosted on 2008-02-15 at 15:39:43ID: 20907044

As was the cobol test all those year ago.

Thanks for the points.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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