Character-string representation

The topic lists symbols that can appear once or more than once in the PICTURE character-string.

Symbols that can appear more than once

The following symbols can appear more than once in one PICTURE character-string:


A  B  G  N  P  X  U  Z  9  0  /  ,  +  –  *  cs

At least one of the symbols A, G, N, X, U, Z, 9, or *, or at least two of the symbols +, –, or cs must be present in a PICTURE string.

An unsigned nonzero integer enclosed in parentheses immediately following any of these symbols specifies the number of consecutive occurrences of that symbol.

Example: The following two PICTURE clause specifications are equivalent:


PICTURE IS $99999.99CR
PICTURE IS $9(5).9(2)CR

Symbols that can appear only once

The following symbols can appear only once in one PICTURE character-string:


E  S  V  .  CR  DB

Except for the PICTURE symbol V, each occurrence of any of the above symbols in a given PICTURE character-string represents an occurrence of that character or set of allowable characters in the data item.