Comparing national data and alphanumeric-group operands

You can compare a national literal, a national group item, or any elementary data item that has USAGE NATIONAL to an alphanumeric group.

About this task

Neither operand is converted. The national operand is treated as if it were moved to an alphanumeric group item of the same size in bytes as the national operand, and the two groups are compared. An alphanumeric comparison is done regardless of the representation of the subordinate items in the alphanumeric group operand.

For example, Group-XN is an alphanumeric group that consists of two subordinate items that have USAGE NATIONAL:


01  Group-XN.
    02 TransCode PIC NN   Value "AB"  Usage National.
    02 Quantity  PIC 999  Value 123   Usage National.
    . . .
    If N"AB123" = Group-XN  Then Display "EQUAL"
    Else Display "NOT EQUAL".

When the IF statement above is executed, the 10 bytes of the national literal N"AB123" are compared byte by byte to the content of Group-XN. The items compare equally, and "EQUAL" is displayed.

Related references  
Group comparisons (COBOL for Linux® on x86 Language Reference)