How does Cobol Compiler handle Replacing Tags...

[Jagbrew]

Let say a copybook is created as such:

01 :a1:account-number:b1:

and the program does not use a replacing clause on the copy statment...

Does the compiler just ignore the :a1: and :b1: tags and create the field as account-number?

 

[COBOLKenny]

I work on IBM Enterprise COBOL. Leaving the replacing phrase off does not work. The string :a1: remains in the copybook and causes a compiler error.

I did try a replacing phrase such as
REPLACING ==:a1:== BY ====
and it removed the string.

 

[TonHu]

What size/dataformat would account-number expected to be if :a1: and :b1: where stripped off?

TIA
TonHu

 

[slade]

And because COBOL processes the tags as Kenny indicated, it's a good idea to make the dash (-) part of the tag as you apparently did.

I've never tried it but I'll bet COBOL doesn't like datanames that begin with a dash. But, even so, it looks ungainly.

Regards, Jack.

"A problem well stated is a problem half solved" -- Charles F. Kettering

 

[B4db0y]

I work on IBM Enterprise COBOL and Bull COBOL.
On both leaving the replacing off does not work.


Best regards
B4db0y

____________________________________________________________
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

 

[COBOLKenny]

You're right Jack. COBOL does not like starting a dataname with a hyphen. My copybook had a dataname such as
:a1:-account-number and when I used the REPLACING string as in my last post, I got a compile error for each dataname that looked like that. It became -account-number.

 

[slade]

Thanx for the update Kenny.

Regards, Jack.

"A problem well stated is a problem half solved" -- Charles F. Kettering

 

[TonHu]

The OP has probably left the building...