COBOL Programming Standards

I. IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.

The PROGRAM-ID should be an eight character descriptive name of the

program.

The AUTHOR must be the name of the student.

The date must include DATE-COMPILED.

There must be remarks divided into specific paragraphs as indicated. The

paragraph titles should be displayed in column twelve with the rest of the
paragraph indented for clarity.

FUNCTION. Briefly state the function of the program.

INPUT FILES. List the internal name for each file used as input,
followed by its disk file name and the sort sequence (if any) of the
file.

OUTPUT FILES. List the internal name for each file used for
output, followed by its disk file name and the sort sequence (if
any) of the file.

PRINTER OUTPUT. Describe briefly each report generated by

this program, including information about control breaks.

II. ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.

INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION. Select files by the order in which they are used.

III. DATA DIVISION.

Insert a blank line before each 01 level number.

Level numbers.
 Use non-contiguous level numbers in increments of five (05, 10,
15).

Indent each higher level number four columns or other standard

number of spaces.

Indent NO FEWER than four spaces. .

PICTURE clause.

PICTURE clauses must be vertically aligned in the program.

The PICTURE of a data item should agree with its primary usage.
It should be alphanumeric unless used for computation,
subscription or editing. You should use Signed Numeric fields in
all cases except for subscripts, counters, etc.

VALUE clauses must be vertically aligned in the program.

FILE SECTION.

Files should be defined in the same sequence as they were selected

in the ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.

The file names should be descriptive of the function of the file.

Record names should be formulated to include the file description

name and the word "RECORD".

Data items under the 01 level should be formulated to include a

two character prefix that associates the data name with its record.

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.

Data names should be descriptive of the function of the item.

Data names should be grouped under the 01 levels in the following

order and prefixed as follows:

01 ACCUMULATORS.
Begin all data names with "A".

01 CONSTANTS.
Begin all data names with "C".

01 FLAGS.
 Begin all data names with "F".

01 PRINT-LINES.
Begin all data names with "P".

01 WORK-AREAS.
Begin all data names with "W".

01 TABLES.
Begin all data names with "T".
Must be last entry in WORKING-
STORAGE.

Data items that cannot logically be grouped in the above categories

should be appropriately grouped and inserted in the above list in
alphabetical order by the 01 level data name. (With the exception
of 01 TABLES which is always the last entry.)

Data names under each 01 level should be formulated to include a

two (or more, if necessary) character prefix that associates the data
name with its record.

WORKING-STORAGE elementary items should NOT have initial values except

for constants, look-up tables, and constant values used for print lines or screens.

There should be no Value clauses in the File Section except for 88-level entries,
which we will discuss.

I. PROCEDURE DIVISION.

General.

Use meaningful paragraph and section names. Begin each with an

ascending four digit number indicating the sequence of the
paragraph or section within the hierarchy chart. The number should
be followed by a dash and the descriptive name, gaps should be
left between numbers to facilitate program maintenance. For
example:

First paragraph should be a 0000-MAIN.

This paragraph may have a ‘next level’ set of paragraphs (that it

invokes (calls)) such as:

1000-INITIALIZE.
2000-COMPUTE-TAX.
 3000-PRINT-REPORT.

Each paragraph is to be preceded with a Flower Box: The flower

box is to contain:

a description of the function of the paragraph followed by

the modules this paragraph calls followed by a listing of the
modules that called this paragraph. See separate description of a
Sample Program.

Start each verb on a new line. Use indentations of four spaces to

the left for each continuation line of statements that exceed one
line.

PERFORMS:

PERFORM each paragraph except the driver. Don't let the program
control fall through from one paragraph to the next.

You may alternately use the in-line PERFORM.

The WRITE ... FROM format should be used whenever possible.

This is especially appropriate for headers, trailers, and other
constant or nearly-constant records. Detail records should appear
in the File Section.

Use a separate line for the following:

An ELSE conditional statement

Verbs with multiple conditions:

READ INPUT-FILE
AT END
MOVE "Y" TO S-EOF-INPUT
PERFORM 3200-OUT-OF-INPUT
END-READ.

SCOPE TERMINATORS (ENDS OF PERFORM,

READS, Ifs, AND SEVERAL OTHER CONSTRUCTS
ARE ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED!!!
 Multiple receiving fields for the same move

MOVE FIELD-A TO FIELD-B

FIELD-C.

Multiple LINKAGE areas in a USING statement

CALL "COBSUB2" USING LINK-AREA-1

LINK-AREA-2.

Multiple files OPENed or CLOSEd

OPEN INPUT INPUT-FILE

TRANSACTION-FILE
OUTPUT REPORT-FILE.

You may optionally code a series of sequential MOVE

statements aligned on the word TO, as shown below:

MOVE PAGE-NUMBER TO P-HEADER-PAGE.

MOVE HEADING-LINE TO P-REPORT-LINE.
MOVE ZERO TO P-LINE-COUNT.

Literals should only be coded when the value will never need to
be modified and when the significance of that value is very
obvious. For example:
ADD 1 TO A-PAGE-COUNT. (Acceptable)
MULTIPLY W-BASE-PAY BY 250.
(Unacceptable)

Modularity.

A paragraph must be a functionally independent unit of code.

A paragraph may not consist of a single PERFORM statement.

A paragraph has only one entry point and one exit point. .
IF.

Compound IF statements should be avoided. When their use is

required, use parentheses for clarity.

Use of mixed mode (negative and positive) is discouraged. Avoid

the use of a "NOT" in a compound IF statement.

The format for IF statements is the IF condition statement on one

line, the action statement on the second line indented four spaces,
the ELSE aligned with the IF on a separate line and the ELSE
action statement on a separate line indented four spaces.

IF condition statement
action statement
ELSE
action statement
END-IF

ALL IF Statements must be properly indented and

contain scope terminators.

Arithmetic statements.

Keep arithmetic statements as simple as possible.

Statements involving fields with decimals should use the

ROUNDED option.

COMPUTE statements should contain parentheses to insure proper

ordering of computations.

GO TO. - Not allowed in this course. But in the past:

In structured programming every effort should be made to avoid

the use of the GO TO statement. If a GO TO can not be avoided
the only valid uses of the GO TO are:

In a downward direction within the same paragraph or

section.

To the exit of the same paragraph or section.

Older COBOL programs consisting of the performing of

paragraph groups used this technique a great deal, and the
use of forward-pointing GOTOs was an acceptable
practice.
Output.

Page headings should appear on every page and should

be centered.
Page numbers, as of dates, prepared dates, etc. will
be discussed in class, as these are normally found on
report headers.

The end of each report should be clearly indicated by:

A double space after the last line of the report (before the
statistics, if required.)

A row of asterisks with the phrase "END OF REPORT"

centered on a line.

******************END OF
REPORT********************

Quality control. (may be required from time to time)

Maintain counts of all records from input files and of all record
written to output files. Additional quality control information
should be collected as needed (total number of errors, etc.) Print all
counts at the end of each report or job process.

******************************************************
****
STATISTICAL INFORMATION

******************************************************
****

PERSONNEL INPUT RECORDS READ

9999
PERSONNEL OUTPUT RECORDS WRITTEN
9999
RECORDS IN ERROR
9999

Prepared by Behrooz Seyed-Abbassi, Jack Leitner, Robert F. Roggio,

Diana Stewart, and Ron Zucker.
Additions, corrections, comments please email to rzucker@unf.edu(click
to send mail)

Significantly updated on 12/30/2005 by R. Roggio.