Using COBOL Data Declarations

Requirements and Options for Host Languages › Using SQL in a COBOL Application Program › Defining Host Variables › Using COBOL Data Declarations

Using COBOL Data Declarations

What You Declare

Within an SQL declare section, you specify the name, level, and data type of host variables using standard COBOL data declarative statements and observing these guidelines:

A host variable name must conform to COBOL rules for forming variable names
The level number is in the range of 01 to 49, or 77
A CA IDMS extension of the SQL standard allows level numbers in the range of 02 to 49.
The data type of the host variable as defined in the PICTURE and USAGE clauses

Equivalent Column Data Types

All CA IDMS data types can be supported in a COBOL program.

This table shows types of COBOL host variables and the equivalent CA IDMS table column data types:

COBOL PICTURE and USAGE clause	CA IDMS data type
PIC X(n) USAGE DISPLAY	CHAR(n)
01 name 49 name-LEN PIC S9(4) COMP 49 name-TEXT PIC X(n)	VARCHAR(n)
PIC S9(p-s)V9(s) USAGE COMP-3	DECIMAL(p,s)
PIC 9(p-s)V9(s) USAGE COMP-3	UNSIGNED DECIMAL(p,s)¹
USAGE COMP-2	DOUBLE PRECISION
USAGE COMP-1	REAL
USAGE COMP-1	FLOAT
PIC S9(n) USAGE COMP (where n<5)	SMALLINT
PIC S9(n) USAGE COMP (where n>4 and n<10)	INTEGER
PIC S9(n) USAGE COMP (where n>9)	LONGINT or BIGINT
PIC S9(p-s)V9(s) USAGE DISPLAY	NUMERIC(p,s)
PIC 9(p-s)V9(s) USAGE DISPLAY	UNSIGNED NUMERIC(p,s)¹
PIC X(n) USAGE SQLBIN	BINARY(n)
PIC G(n) USAGE DISPLAY-1	GRAPHIC(n)¹
01 name 49 name-LEN PIC S9(4) COMP 49 name-TEXT PIC G(n) DISPLAY-1	VARGRAPHIC(n)¹
PIC X(10) USAGE DISPLAY	DATE
PIC X(8) USAGE DISPLAY	TIME
PIC X(26) USAGE DISPLAY	TIMESTAMP
PIC X(8) USAGE SQLBIN	TID¹

Note: ¹This data type is a CA IDMS extension of the SQL standard. For more information about CA IDMS data types, see the CA IDMS SQL Reference Guide.

Host Variable Declaration Example

In this example, the SQL declare section defines host variables, including one indicator variable, using standard COBOL data declarations. The example is annotated to show the equivalent column data type for each variable and to identify an indicator variable:

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
 .
 .
 .
 EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION END-EXEC.
   01  EMP-ID           PIC S9(8)     USAGE COMP.    ◄─ INTEGER
   01  EMP-LNAME        PIC X(20).                   ◄─ CHARACTER
   01  SALARY-AMOUNT    PIC S9(6)V(2) USAGE COMP-3.  ◄─ DECIMAL
   01  PROMO-DATE       PIC X(10).                   ◄─ DATE
   01  PROMO-DATE-I     PIC S9(4)     USAGE COMP.    ◄─ Indicator variable
 EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION END-EXEC.

Declaring an indicator variable

An indicator variable must be either a 2 or 4 byte computational (binary) data type. In the example above, PROMO-DATE-I is a valid indicator variable.

SQLIND data type

You can declare an indicator variable with the data type SQLIND:

05  PROMO_DATE       PIC X(10).                ◄─ DATE
05  PROMO_DATE_I     SQLIND.                   ◄─ Indicator variable

The precompiler will substitute PIC S9(8) USAGE COMP in the output source.

The SQLIND data type is primarily for use within bulk structure definitions. In other cases its use is optional.

Allowable Host Variable Definitions

A host variable definition may contain:

PICTURE clause
USAGE clause
- DISPLAY
- DISPLAY SIGN LEADING SEPARATE
- COMP
- COMP-1¹
- COMP-2¹
- COMP-3¹
- SQLIND¹
- SQLBIN¹
- SQLSESS¹
VALUE clause¹
88 condition-name¹ (any legal COBOL clause)
OCCURS¹ clause (except within a non-bulk structure)
Within a bulk structure definition, the occurs clause is allowed only on the second-level group element. The following subclauses are also supported but only on the second level group element of a bulk structure:
- DEPENDING ON
  Note: The DEPENDING ON variable is not used in determining the number of rows in the bulk structure.
- ASCENDING/DESCENDING KEY
- INDEXED BY
REDEFINES¹clause (except within a bulk or non-bulk structure)
BLANK WHEN ZERO¹ (except within a bulk or non-bulk structure)
SYNCHRONIZED¹ (except within a bulk or non-bulk structure)

(¹ This support is a CA IDMS extension of the SQL standard.)