String Handling in COBOL

• In this module we will cover string manipulating operations such as counting characters in a string, finding of a character/sub-string in a string, replacement of particular character/sub-string in a string, string concatenation and string segmentation(split one string to many string) etc.
• All above specified string manipulating operations can be handled by three COBOL verbs:-
  • INSPECT
  • STRING
  • UNSTRING
• EXAMINE is older version of INSPECT and it was used in COBOL 74. We will cover EXAMINE verb after INSPECT verb’s explanation
• Below we have provided overview of each of these verbs and same is explained in detail in upcoming section

INSPECT

• Used to count characters in a string
• Used to replaces a group of characters in a sting with another group of characters
• Permits several tallies (counts) and replacements with a single statement (instead of writing multiple statements)
• Allows group of characters to be counted and replaced
• Converts each of a set of character to its corresponding character in another set of characters
• INSPECT is explained in detail here < LINK >

EXAMINE

• INSPECT and EXAMINE are used to perform same operations
• EXAMINE was present in the earlier version of COBOL and was replaced in ANSI 74 COBOL with more powerful verb INSPECT
• However, many implementation still uses EXAMINE and thus we are covering it at high level
• EXAMINE is explained in detail here < LINK >

STRING

• STRING is used to join together one or more strings or partial source strings to form a single destination string
• This is also used to transfer characters from a string to another string starting at some particular character position either in the receiving field or in the sending fields
• STRING is explained in detail here < LINK >

UNSTRING

• It is used to split a string into many sub-strings
• UNSTRING is explained in detail here < LINK >