What Does a COBOL Programmer Do?

COBOL is a powerful data processing language in microcomputer systems. Microcomputer COBOL not only maintains the inherent characteristics of standard COBOL, but also adapts and gives play to the characteristics of microcomputer systems. ^[1]

COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) is a programming language suitable for business and data processing. This language allows precise representation of business data processing. In enterprise management, numerical calculations are not complicated, but the amount of data processing information is large. In order to specifically solve business management problems, in 1959, some computer user organizations in the United States designed a computer language COBOL dedicated to business processing, and in 1961 was announced by the American Data Systems Language Association. After continuous modification, enrichment and standardization, it has developed into multiple versions.

COBOL language provides three powerful file processing functions (

COBOL is a powerful data processing language in microcomputer systems. Microcomputer COBOL not only maintains the inherent characteristics of standard COBOL, but also adapts to and exerts

One of the microcomputer program structures. Compared with programs written in other high-level languages, the COBOL program has a fixed format, its structure is rigorous, and its levels are clear.

(1) Identification Department (IDENTIFIcAT10N DIVISION): The identification department is used to name the program. You can also write some remarks, such as the name of the author, the date of writing and compiling.

(2) Equipment Division (ENVIRONMENT DIVISION): Equipment Division is the part of the program that describes the computer hardware. Indicate the host and peripherals used.

(3) Data Division (DATA DIVISION): The data division is used to describe the data structure of the program. This data includes input, output, and intermediate results.

(4) Process department (PROCEDURE DIVLu IoN): The process department is the most important part of the COBOL program, and its task is to process and calculate the data.

COBOL stipulates that there is no section under the identification department, and it can be directly composed of several sections with fixed section names. The equipment section contains sections, which are sub-sectioned under sections. These sections or sections have fixed names. The data section can contain several sections. These sections also have fixed section names. The sections are no longer segmented, but are composed of several descriptive item descriptors, each of which consists of several clauses. The process section can be divided into sections, and sections contain one or more sections. The process department can also be composed of segments without segmentation. Unlike the first three sections, the division of sections or sections, and the names of sections and sections are all determined by the programmer. A COBOL source program is similar to the chapter structure of an article; chapter (section) sections There are paragraphs and sentences. The entire source program is divided into chapters (sections), each chapter is divided into sections, how many sections are divided into sections, and the relevant chapter names (section names), section names, section names are agreed, which makes it The level is clear and the structure is rigorous and stable. The entire COBOL source program is a tree structure, as shown below: ^[1]