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Module 5: Data Division


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EDITING Code characters

  • While creating reports, sometimes there is necessity to edit the data before it is written on the actual report. For example, you want to add currency sign ‘$’ in salary field, you want to suppress leading zeroes from amount field etc.
  • For this purpose we can use editing characters of PICTURE clause to represent data in the user expected format
  • COBOL programming provides below Editing code characters:-

Code character Description
Z Used to suppress leading zeroes in numeric data item. The leading zeroes will be replace with spaces. Z character has no effect on trailing zeroes. Please refer examples in next table
* Similar to code character ‘Z’ except that the leading zeroes will be replaced by asterisk instead of space characters. Please refer examples in next table
$ A single $ character will appear on leftmost position of a numeric value. Please refer examples in next table
- A minus sign will appear either at the leftmost or rightmost position of numeric value. If data in negative, a minus sign will appear but if data is positive, a space will appear. Please refer examples in next table
+ A plus sign is similar to minus sign except that the plus sign will appear when data is positive instead of space. If data is negative a minus sign(-) will appear. Please refer examples in next table
CR A ‘CR’ – Credit sign will appear only at rightmost position of the numeric value. If data in negative, a ‘CR’ will appear but if data is positive, two space will appear. Please refer examples in next table
DB A ‘CR’ – Debit sign will appear only at rightmost position of the numeric value. If data in negative, a ‘DB’ will appear but if data is positive, two space will appear. Please refer examples in next table. Please refer examples in next table
. A period sign or decimal point is used to represent decimal point position in numeric value. Please refer examples in next table
, A comma sign is used as delimiter to represent numeric values. One or more comma allowed in picture clause of numeric data item. Please refer examples in next table
B Represents Blank insertion. The position where ‘B’ appears in picture clause, blank character (space) will be inserted in that position. Please refer examples in next table
0 Represents Zero insertion. The position where ‘0’ appears in picture clause, zero ‘0’ will be inserted in that position. Please refer examples in next table
/ Represents Slash insertion. The position where ‘/’ appears in picture clause, slash ‘/’ will be inserted in that position. Mostly it is used to represent date values. Please refer examples in next table
BLANK WHEN ZERO This will set entire data item to blanks if data item contains zero value. Please refer examples in next table
COBOL Editing character examples:-
  • Important points need to remember while using Editing code characters:-
    • For Alphabetic data item only editing character ‘B’ can be used
    • For Numeric data item any editing character can be used
    • For Alphanumeric data item only editing characters ‘B’, ‘0’ and ‘/’ can be used
    • Both the period and V cannot appear in the same picture

De-editing

  • Using MOVE verb, we can move numeric edited data item to the numeric data item. This is allowed in COBOL-85. Moving numeric edited item to numeric data item referred to as De-editing of the value. Let’s understand with example.
  • Below declaration in done in DATA DIVISION:-

    01 EDITED-DATA PIC ZZ999.999. 01 UNEDITED-DATA PIC 9(5)V99.

  • In procedure division, below statement is valid in COBOL-85

    MOVE 4356.12 TO EDITED-DATA. MOVE EDITED-DATA TO UNEDITED-DATA.

  • Once these statements are executed, EDITED-DATA will have value ‘b4356.12’ and UNEDITED-DATA will have value ‘04356.12


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