Relation conditions that specify the figurative constants LOW-VALUES or HIGH-VAL

UES suffer from a slightly different problem. Such relation conditions are defin
ed in COBOL as if the numeric operand were moved to an alphanumeric data item an
d then this alphanumeric data item compared with the nonnumeric operand, LOW-VAL
UES or HIGH-VALUES, according to the collating sequence defined for the program.
If the numeric operand contains valid data, then moving it to an alphanumeric da
ta item will result in a string of native digit characters. Any sign for the num
eric data item is ignored and not moved. If the program uses the native collatin
g sequence, then this intermediate alphanumeric item will always compare higher
than LOW-VALUES and lower than HIGH-VALUES.