Host-Variable Definitions in COBOL

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Host-Variable Definitions in COBOL

Host-variables can be defined only in the WORKING-STORAGE SECTION of your DATA DIVISION. See Host Variables for rules on naming host-variables. Host-variable definitions:

Cannot be longer than 32,765 bytes.
Cannot be COMPUTATIONAL-1 or COMP-1 data type.
Cannot have a PICTURE clause containing the following editing symbols:

Z	$ (dollar sign)	. (period)
B	* (asterisk)	+ (plus sign)
0 (zero)	, (comma)	- (minus sign)

If the CA Datacom/DB Preprocessor encounters any host-variable which includes any of the above clauses, data types or symbols, it issues an error message and the variable is not stored in the host-variable symbol table.

The following sections describe ANSI and extended mode requirements for host-variables.

ANSI SQL Standard Host-Variable Definitions

If you specify in the CA Datacom/DB SQL Preprocessor options that all SQL statements must be ANSI standard, then all host-variables:

Must be defined in one or more SQL DECLARE sections
Must be defined at the elementary column level

All host-variables do not have to be defined within the same SQL DECLARE section. However, any host-variable you define must appear in only one SQL DECLARE section. Host-variables defined in an ANSI SQL DECLARE section become standard COBOL variables after processing by the Preprocessor. The form of an ANSI SQL DECLARE section is:

EXEC SQL

      BEGIN DECLARE SECTION

END-EXEC
host-variable definitions
EXEC SQL

      END DECLARE SECTION

END-EXEC

ANSI Standard Host-Variable Data Types

The ANSI standard allowable data types are as follows:

SQL Data Type	COBOL Definition
CHARACTER or CHAR	PIC X(n)
NUMERIC (zoned decimal)	PIC S9(n)V9(n) DISPLAY SIGN LEADING SEPARATE
INTEGER or INT (large integer)	PIC S9(n) COMP where n > 4 and n <= 9 is supported n > 9 is not supported

Extended Mode SQL Host-Variable Definitions

Host-variables can appear outside an SQL DECLARE section if you specify in the CA Datacom/DB SQL Preprocessor options that SQL statements can include CA Datacom/DB extensions.

Non-ANSI Host-Variable Data Types

The non-ANSI standard allowable data types are as follows:

SQL Data Type	COBOL Definition
CHARACTER or CHAR	PIC X(n)
NUMERIC (zoned decimal)	PIC 9(n)V9(n) DISPLAY or PIC S9(n)V9(n) DISPLAY or PIC S9(n)V9(n) DISPLAY SIGN LEADING SEPARATE
DECIMAL or DEC (packed decimal)	PIC 9(n)V9(n) COMP-3 or PIC S9(n)V9(n) COMP-3 or PIC 9(n)V9(n) PACKED-DECIMAL or PIC S9(n)V9(n) PACKED-DECIMAL
SMALLINT (small integer)	PIC S9(n) COMP or PIC S9(n) BINARY or PIC S9(n) COMP-4 where n <= 4
INTEGER or INT (large integer)	PIC S9(n) COMP or PIC S9(n) BINARY or PIC S9(n) COMP-4 where n > 4 and n <= 9 is supported n > 9 is not supported
FLOAT	USAGE COMP-2
REAL	USAGE COMP-2
DOUBLE PRECISION	USAGE COMP-2

Note: Variable-name-length and variable-name-text are user-defined names. The required level for these two VARCHAR elementary items is 49. The group level may be numbered 01 through 48.

SQL Data Type	COBOL Definition
VARCHAR (small integer) (character)	49 variable-name-length PIC S9(4) COMP 49 variable-name-text PIC X(n) where n = maximum length
LONG VARCHAR (small integer) (character)	49 variable-name-length PIC S9(4) COMP 49 variable-name-text PIC X(n) where n = maximum length
DATE	PIC X(10)
TIME	PIC X(8)
TIMESTAMP	PIC X(26)
GRAPHIC	PIC G(n) USAGE DISPLAY-1 or PIC N(n) USAGE DISPLAY-1
VARGRAPHIC (small integer) (character)	49 variable-name-length PIC S9(4) COMP 49 variable-name-text PIC G(n) USAGE DISPLAY-1 or PIC N(n) USAGE DISPLAY-1 where n = maximum length Note: Variable-name-length and variable-name-text are user-defined names. The required level for these two VARGRAPHIC elementary items is 49. The group level may be numbered 01 through 48. See GRAPHIC, VARGRAPHIC, and LONG VARGRAPHIC.
LONG VARGRAPHIC (small integer) (character)	49 variable-name-length PIC S9(4) COMP 49 variable-name-text PIC G(n) USAGE DISPLAY-1 or PIC N(n) USAGE DISPLAY-1 where n = maximum length Note: Variable-name-length and variable-name-text are user-defined names. The required level for these two LONG VARGRAPHIC elementary items is 49. The group level may be numbered 01 through 48. See GRAPHIC, VARGRAPHIC, and LONG VARGRAPHIC.

Note: The lengths shown for DATEs, TIMEs, and TIMESTAMPs are minimum length requirements. See Character String Literals for more information.

The CA Datacom/DB Preprocessor for COBOL recognizes GRAPHIC host variables and allows mixed data in literals. The Shift-Out and Shift-In characters specified in the CXXMAINT option of the CA Datacom/DB Utility (DBUTLTY) are used by the Preprocessor. Support is provided for both the IBM COBOL and COBOL II compilers and the Fujitsu COBOL85 compiler, but only in COBOL can host-variable names include DBCS characters (delimited by Shift characters).

For more information about SQL data types, see Data Types.