diff --git a/cobol.html.markdown b/cobol.html.markdown index 7c68db7b..7b60a2e6 100644 --- a/cobol.html.markdown +++ b/cobol.html.markdown @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ organizations. *and modern (COBOL-2002 and COBOL-2014) versions. *Legacy versions require columns 1-6 to be blank (they are used *to store the index number of the punched card..) - *A * in column 7 means a comment. + *A '*' in column 7 means a comment. *In legacy COBOL, a comment can only be a full line. *Modern COBOL doesn't require fixed columns and uses *> for *a comment, which can appear in the middle of a line. @@ -44,8 +44,9 @@ organizations. *Let's declare some variables. *We do this in the WORKING-STORAGE section within the DATA DIVISION. - *Each data item (aka variable) with start with a level number, then the name of the item, - *followed by a picture clause describing the type of data that the variable will contain. + *Each data item (aka variable) with start with a level number, + *then the name of the item, followed by a picture clause + *describing the type of data that the variable will contain. *Almost every COBOL programmer will abbreviate PICTURE as PIC. *A is for alphabetic, X is for alphanumeric, and 9 is for numeric. @@ -93,8 +94,10 @@ organizations. *********PERFORM******************** - *The PERFORM keyword allows you to jump to another specified section of the code, and then to return to the next executable - *statement once the specified section of code is completed. You must write the full word, PERFORM, you cannot abbreviate it. + *The PERFORM keyword allows you to jump to another specified section of the code, + *and then to return to the next executable + *statement once the specified section of code is completed. + *You must write the full word, PERFORM, you cannot abbreviate it. IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. HELLOCOBOL. @@ -102,8 +105,9 @@ organizations. PROCEDURE DIVISION. FIRST-PARA. DISPLAY 'THIS IS IN FIRST-PARA'. - PERFORM THIRD-PARA THRU FOURTH-PARA. *>skip over second-para and perfrom third and fourth - *> then after performing third and fourth, return here and continue the program until STOP RUN. + PERFORM THIRD-PARA THRU FOURTH-PARA. *>skip over second-para and perfrom 3rd & 4th + *> then after performing third and fourth, + *> return here and continue the program until STOP RUN. SECOND-PARA. DISPLAY 'THIS IS IN SECOND-PARA'. @@ -127,7 +131,10 @@ organizations. *Now it is time to learn about two related COBOL verbs: string and unstring. - *The string verb is used to concatenate, or put together, two or more stings. Unstring is used, not surprisingly, to separate a *string into two or more smaller strings. It is important that you remember to use ‘delimited by’ when you + *The string verb is used to concatenate, or put together, two or more stings. + *Unstring is used, not surprisingly, to separate a + *string into two or more smaller strings. + *It is important that you remember to use ‘delimited by’ when you *are using string or unstring in your program. IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. @@ -149,19 +156,23 @@ organizations. *The above code will output: - THE FULL NAME IS: BOB COBB *Let’s examine it to see why. - *First, we declared all of our variables, including the one that we are creating by the string command, in the DATA DIVISISION. + *First, we declared all of our variables, including the one that we are creating + *by the string command, in the DATA DIVISION. - *The action takes place down in the PROCEDURE DIVISION. We start with the STRING keyword and end with END-STRING. In between we *list what we want to combine together into the larger, master variable. + *The action takes place down in the PROCEDURE DIVISION. + *We start with the STRING keyword and end with END-STRING. In between we + *list what we want to combine together into the larger, master variable. *Here, we are combining FIRST-NAME, a space, and LAST-NAME. - *The DELIMITED BY phrase that follows FIRST-NAME and LAST-NAME tells the program how much of each variable we want to capture. - *DELIMITED BY SPACE tells the program to start at the beginning, and capture the variable until it runs into a space. + *The DELIMITED BY phrase that follows FIRST-NAME and + *LAST-NAME tells the program how much of each variable we want to capture. + *DELIMITED BY SPACE tells the program to start at the beginning, + *and capture the variable until it runs into a space. *DELIMITED BY SIZE tells the program to capture the full size of the variable. *Since we have DELIMITED BY SPACE after FIRST-NAME, the GIBBERISH part is ignored.