Return Code 7 - Data Exception on a VSE/ESA 1

[oldcoboler]

Good Evening Fellow Cobol Programmers,

I'm an MVS cobol programmer who has been thrown into a conversion project. We are doing a PeopleSoft conversion from VSE/ESA to an AIX box. I've never worked with a VSE/ESA machine. Only MVS/ESA 9000 series mainframes.

Today I was attempting to set up a simple control break.

I think the program bombed with the return code = 7 (like an MVS SOC7 ??) on the following:

IF acct-nbr = ws-acct-nbr
and pole-type-code = ws-pole-type-code
and pole-type-code > space <<< I think this is the problem

Should I have coded ??:

and pole-type-code not = space

Please let me know. It's a pic x(01) field.

The project manager says she thinks shes not getting her money's worth with regard to my Cobol skills. All of my old Cobol texts are lost in storage somewhere so I don't have any real good resources.

They canned one of my fellow consultants from the same firm that I work for yesterday for slow coding, so the pressure is on.

I think I'll try half.com too and try and procure some old Cobol texts.

I've haven't looked at a Cobol program in 7 months so I'm a bit rusty.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Oldcoboler

 

[MarcLodge]

Hi,
I've not worked on a VSE/ESA machine either but would think it unlikely that you would be getting a data exception on a Pic X field. What are the formats of the other two fields, namely acct-nbr and ws-acct-nbr? I'm assuming the ws-pole-type-code is also pic X.
Marc

 

[oldcoboler]

I put in displays and the program bombs just before an IF
statement.

Here is what it looks like:

IF PV-POLE-CODE = WS-PV-POLE-CODE
AND W-PAN = WS-PV-PAN
AND PV-POLE-CODE NOT = SPACES

Both pole code fields are Pic X(01).
W-Pan and WS-PV-Pan are Pic 9(9).

At the time the program bombs here is the values:

W-PAN = 996101120
WS-PV-PAN = spaces or blank
PV-POLE-Code = spaces
WS-PV-POLe-Code = spaces

Could it be that the WS fields need to be initialized to zero ?

Let me know whatever you think.

Thanks,

Oldcoboler

 

[MarcLodge]

Try initializing the WS-PV-PAN to zero.
HTW
Marc

 

[oldcoboler]

Thanks for the tip about initializing the ws field to zero.

I came up with the same conclusion after I posted my second message and before I read your message.

However, it's good to create a discussion with you and it seems that I can get more answers in a timely manner than I can where I work. It seems that the technical lead on our conversion project expects me to be at the same level as he is so apparently I'm going to be using this forum frequently.

We are hampered in our Cobol development environment. We have no debugging tools, instead we have to use displays or look at the offsets. It's Cobol 74 revisited for me and the programs we write for the conversion effort are essentially throw away programs.

Once the data conversion is complete the programs will never be used again.

Thanks again for your feedback,

Oldcoboler

 

[MarcLodge]

Thanks for the star! Only too happy to help with this, and any further queries.
Marc

 

[3gm]

A VSE data exception is, in fact, exactly the same as an MVS S0C7. The problem is definitely the numeric field containing spaces. Sorry to hear about the lack of debugging tools. Many VSE shops are smaller shops and don't have the budget for AbendAid or similar debugging tools. Of course the LE-enabled COBOL compilers have some built-in debugging tools (formatted dumps etc). It may be that the techie folks in the shop just haven't bothered to train the programming staff in how to use the tools that ARE available.

Of course, you can always get a dump and a compile map and resolve the issue.

Good luck.

Glenn