COBOL Application Programming

This course will cover I/O processing, conditional testing, arithmetic operations, table handling, subprogram concepts and linkage conventions.  The course will cover structured programming using the new COBOL for MVS constructs for Do groups (inline performs), Dowhile, Dountil, Selection (IF THEN ELSE) and Case (evaluate).  This course is current to the latest release of COBOL for MVS/VM but can be taught for any predecessors. 

Upon completion of the course each participant should have: 

An understanding of each of the COBOL Divisions:  Identification, Environment, Data, and Procedure. 

Knowledge of good programming techniques in COBOL II.  Inline performs (do groups), Evaluate (case), Perform with test after (dountil), Perform with test before (dowhile), If Then Else (selection), and sequence. 

An understanding of the basic I/O functions and verbs.  Open, Close, Read, Write, Rewrite, Start, file organization, file access mode, fixed and variable length records processing. 

An understanding of the Arithmetic instructions and different numeric data types. Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Compute Pic 9 data (external decimal), Comp-3 data (packed), and Comp data (binary). 

An understanding of table handling techniques.  Table creation, searching tables, binary versus sequential searches, the SEARCH verb, indexing versus subscripting, and usage index data types. 

An understanding of the subprogram concept.  Static versus dynamic calls, Parameter list and linkage conventions, By Content and By Reference, External data items. 

Prerequisites

Students should have a basic familiarity with TSO/ISPF (or equivalent) for editing programs and submitting jobs.  Knowledge of another programming language is helpful but not required.