COBOL runtime messages

The messages in this topic pertain to COBOL. Each message is followed by an explanation describing the condition that caused the message, a programmer response suggesting how you might prevent the message from occurring again, and a system action indicating how the system responds to the condition that caused the message.

The messages also contain a symbolic feedback code, which represents the first 8 bytes of a 12-byte condition token. You can think of the symbolic feedback code as the nickname for a condition. As such, the symbolic feedback code can be used in user-written condition handlers to screen for a given condition, even if it occurs at different locations in an application.

The messages in this topic contain alphabetic suffixes that have the following meaning:
I
Informational message
W
Warning message
E
Error message
S
Severe error message
C
Critical error message