How to compare or set to ASCII values or equivalents ? 1

[Doylet]

In Basic we use A=Chr$(25) or B=ASC(...) to work with the ASCII equivalent of each character for string handling.

How do you do that in Cobol? ==================
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[BettyScherber]

Some COBOLs have an intrinsic function. If yours doesn't, you could define a binary field and redefine it as an alpha field, something like this;

01 ASCII-VALUE PIC 9(4) BINARY VALUE ZEROS.

01 REDEFINES ASCII-VALUE.
05 PIC X.
05 CHAR-VALUE PIC X.

In your code, if you MOVE the character in question to CHAR-VALUE, it's ASCII equivalent will be in ASCII-VALUE. Of course, this also works with EBCDIC, but EBCDIC-VALUE might be a better name in that case. Betty Scherber
Brainbench MVP for COBOL II

http://www.brainbench.com

 

[mrregan]

Hi,
You can use hexadecimal definitions to easily accomodate any character:
01 char-a pic x value h"41".
01 esc pic x value h"1b".
01 nullchar pic x value h"00".
Hope this helps