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Training Course Summary:

This class is designed for students to improve their knowledge of COBOL tools. Each student will write, execute and debug COBOL programs that stress the advanced features of COBOL. This will include multi-dimensional and variable length tables, multi-program and sub-program calls, and VSAM file manipulation. Sorting, merging and programming standards and style will be addressed.

Pre-Requisites:

Attending our COBOL Programming Part 1 course or having equivalent knowledge is assumed.

Who Should Attend:

Application programmers with some experience in COBOL who want formal training in the advanced language features and programming techniques.

Training Course Overview/Content:

Review of COBOL Concepts
What is COBOL programming?
How does it fit in the environment?
Basic terms and language structure
Programming fundamentals
COBOL ground rules
JCL concepts

Advanced COBOL Logic
Compound IF statement
IF logic guidelines
The NOT statement
Condition names 88-Levels
The SET statement for condition names
Testing for blank numeric fields
COBOL 85 changes

Control Break Logic
Concepts
One-Level control breaks
Two-Level control breaks
Page overflow
Error testing

Table Processing
Sequential tables
The SEARCH statement
The PERFORM VARYING statement
Variable length tables
The SEARCH ALL statement
Multi-dimensional tables

COBOL Sort and Merge
Basic SORT requirements
The SELECT and SD statements
The SORT statement
USING and GIVING options
Basic MERGE requirements
Sorting table entries
Other sort logic

VSAM File Concepts
File structures
KSDS files
ESDS files
RRDS files
Alternate indexes

VSAM Processing Statements
The INPUT-OUTPUT section
The FILE section
The OPEN and CLOSE statements
The READ statement
The WRITE statement

Programming VSAM Files
File status
Random processing
Sequential processing
Relative record processing

Multi-Programming
Program linkage
Entry points
Passing data between programs
Nested programs
The CALL statement

Debugging COBOL Programs
Concepts
Types of errors
Debugging mode
The STATE option
Storage dumps

Summary
COBOL future
Structures programming in COBOL
COBOL 85 and the future

WORKSHOPS:
Workshops in this course are conducted in a hands-on environment. Delegates will code,
execute and debug a series of programs serving as excellent examples of the advanced
features of COBOL.