Compiler limit comparison

The following table lists the compiler limits for Enterprise COBOL V5 and V6, other Enterprise COBOL versions, IBM® COBOL, VS COBOL II, and OS/VS COBOL programs.

These are guidelines to the limits in the table:
  • Interpret a limit stated in megabytes (MB) as: x megabytes minus 1-B.
  • Interpret a limit stated in kilobytes (KB) as: x kilobytes minus 1-B.
  • Interpret a limit stated in gigabytes (GB) as: x gigabytes minus 1-B.
  • B stands for bytes.
  • N/L stands for no limit.
  • Footnotes are at the end of the table.
Language element Enterprise COBOL V5 and V6 Other Enterprise COBOL versions IBM COBOL and VS COBOL II OS/VS COBOL
Size of program 999,999 lines 999,999 lines 999,999 lines 999,999 lines
Number of literals 4,194,303-B1 4,194,303-B1 4,194,303-B1 16,384-B
Total length of literals 4,194,303-B1 4,194,303-B1 4,194,303-B1 32,767-B after OPT
Reserved word table entries 1536 1536 1536 N/L
COPY REPLACING . . . BY . . . (items per COPY statement) N/L N/L N/L 150
Number of COPY libraries N/L N/L N/L N/L
Block size of COPY library 32,760-B 32,767-B 32,767-B 16,384-B
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION        
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION        
CONFIGURATION SECTION        
SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph        
mnemonic-name IS 18 18 18 18
UPSI-n . . . (switches) 0-7 0-7 0-7 0-7
alphabet-name IS . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
literal THRU . . . or ALSO . . . 256 256 256 256
INPUT-OUPUT SECTION        
FILE-CONTROL paragraph        
SELECT file-name . . . A maximum of 65,535 file names can be assigned external names A maximum of 65,535 file names can be assigned external names A maximum of 65,535 file names can be assigned external names A maximum of 65,535 file names can be assigned external names
ASSIGN system-name . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
ALTERNATE RECORD KEY data-name . . . 253 253 253 253
RECORD KEY length N/L2 N/L2 N/L2 255
RESERVE integer (buffers) 2553 2553 2553 2553
I-O-CONTROL paragraph        
RERUN ON system-name . . . 32,767 32,767 32,767 32,767
RERUN integer RECORDS 16,777,215 16,777,215 16,777,215 16,777,215
SAME RECORD AREA 255 255 255 255
SAME RECORD AREA FOR file-name . . . 255 255 255 255
SAME SORT/MERGE AREA N/L4 N/L4 N/L4 N/L4
MULTIPLE FILE file-name . . . N/L4 N/L4 N/L4 N/L4
DATA DIVISION        
77 data item size 999,999,999 134,217,727 16,777,215 1,048,576
Total 01 + 77 (data items) N/L N/L N/L 255
88 condition-names . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
66 RENAMES . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
PICTURE clause, number of characters in character-string 50 50 30 30
PICTURE clause, numeric item digit positions
With
ARITH(COMPAT):
18
With
ARITH(EXTEND):
31
 18 (or 31)6
For IBM COBOL:
18 (or 31)6
For VS COBOL II:
18
 18
PICTURE clause, numeric-edited character positions 249 249 249 127
PICTURE symbol replication ( ) 999,999,999 134,217,727 16,777,215 99,999
PICTURE symbol replication ( ), class DBCS items 499,999,999 67,108,863 8,388,607 N/A
PICTURE symbol replication ( ), class national items 499,999,999 67,108,863 N/A N/A
PICTURE symbol replication (editing) 32,767 32,767 32,767 99,999
Elementary item size 134,217,727 134,217,727 16,777,215 32,767
OCCURS integer 999,999,999 134,217,727 4,194,303 65,535
Table size 999,999,999 134,217,727 8,388,607 32,767
ASC or DES KEY . . . (per OCCURS clause) 12 12 12 12
Total length of keys (per OCCURS clause) 256B 256B 256B 256B
INDEXED BY . . . (index names by OCCURS clause) 12 12 12 12
Total number of indexes (index names) per class or program 65,535 65,535 65,535 65,535
Size of relative index 32,765 32,765 32,765 32,765
FILE SECTION        
FD record description entry 1,048,575 1,048,575 1,048,575 1,048,575
FD file-name . . . 65,535 65,535 65,535 65,535
LABEL data-name . . . (if no optional clauses) 255 255 255 185
Label record length 80-B 80-B 80-B 80-B
DATA RECORD data-name . . . N/L4 N/L4 N/L4 N/L4
BLOCK CONTAINS integer 2,147,483,6479 2,147,483,6479
For IBM COBOL:
2,147,483,647
For VS COBOL II:
1,048,5755
 32,760
RECORD CONTAINS integer 1,048,5755 1,048,5755 1,048,5755 32760
SD file-name . . . 65,535 65,535 65,535 65,535
DATA RECORD data-name . . . N/L4 N/L4 N/L4 N/L4
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION        
Total size of items without the EXTERNAL attribute 2,147,483,646-B 134,217,727-B 134,217,727-B 1,048,576
Total size of items with the EXTERNAL attribute 2,147,483,646-B 134,217,727-B 134,217,727-B N/A
LINKAGE SECTION        
Total size N/L 134,213,631-B 134,217,727-B 1,048,576
PROCEDURE DIVISION        
Procedure and constant area 4,194,3031 4,194,3031 4,194,3031 1M+32-KB
PROCEDURE DIVISION USING identifier . . . 32,767 32,767 32,767 N/L
Procedure-names 1,048,5751 1,048,5751 1,048,5751 64-KB1
Statements per line (FDUMP/TEST) 7 7 7 7
Subscripted data-names per statement 32,767 32,767 32,767 511
ADD identifier . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
ALTER procedure-name 1 TO procedure-name 2 . . . 4,194,3031 4,194,3031 4,194,3031 64-KB1
CALL . . . BY CONTENT identifier 2,147,483,647 2,147,483,647 2,147,483,647 N/A
CALL literal . . . 4,194,3031 4,194,3031 4,194,3031 N/L
CALL identifier or literal USING identifier or literal . . . 16,380 16,380 16,380 N/L
Active programs in run unit 32,767 32,767 32,767 32,767
Number of names called (DYN option) N/L N/L N/L 64-K
CANCEL identifier or literal . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
CLOSE file-name . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
COMPUTE identifier . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
DISPLAY identifier or literal . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
DIVIDE identifier . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
ENTRY USING identifier or literal . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
EVALUATE . . . subjects 64 64 64 N/L
EVALUATE . . . WHEN clauses 256 256 256 N/L
GO procedure-name . . . DEPENDING 255 255 255 2031
INSPECT TALLYING and REPLACING clauses N/L N/L N/L 15
MERGE file-name ASC or DES KEY . . . N/L N/L N/L 12
Total merge key length 4092-B7 4092-B7 4092-B7 256-B
MERGE USING file-name . . . 168 168 168 168
MOVE identifier or literal TO literal . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
MULTIPLY identifier . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
OPEN file-name . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
PERFORM 4,194,303 4,194,303 4,194,303 64-K
SEARCH . . . WHEN . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
SET index or identifier . . . TO N/L N/L N/L N/L
SET index . . . UP or DOWN N/L N/L N/L N/L
SORT file-name ASC or DES KEY N/L N/L N/L 12
Total sort key length 4092-B7 4092-B7 4092-B7 256-B
SORT USING file-name . . . 168 168 168 168
STRING identifier . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
STRING DELIMITED identifier or literal . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
UNSTRING DELIMITED identifier or literal . . . N/L 255 255 15
UNSTRING INTO identifier or literal . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
USE . . . ON file-name . . . N/L N/L N/L N/L
  1. Items included in limit for procedure plus constant area.
  2. No compiler limit, but VSAM limits it to 255 bytes.
  3. QSAM limit.
  4. Syntax checked, but has no effect on the execution of the program; there is no limit.
  5. The compiler limit is shown, but QSAM limits it to 32,767 bytes.
  6. For COBOL for OS/390® & VM V2R2 and later versions, 18 if ARITH(COMPAT) is in effect, or 31 if ARITH(EXTEND) is in effect.
  7. For QSAM and VSAM, the limit is 4088 bytes if EQUALS is coded on the OPTION control statement.
  8. SORT limit for QSAM and VSAM.
  9. Requires large block interface (LBI) support provided by OS/390 DFSMS Version 2 Release 10.0 or later. On OS/390 systems with earlier releases of DFSMS, the limit is 32,767 bytes. For more information about using large block sizes, see the Enterprise COBOL for z/OS® Programming Guide.