Comment lines
A comment line is any line with an asterisk (*) or slash (/) in the indicator area (column 7) of the line, or with a floating comment indicator (*>) as the first character-string in the program text area (Area A plus Area B).
The comment can be written anywhere in the program text area of that line, and can consist of any combination of characters from the character set of the computer.
Comment lines can be placed anywhere in a program, method, or class definition. Comment lines placed before the IDENTIFICATION DIVISION header must follow any control cards (for example, PROCESS or CBL).
Important: Comments intermixed with control cards could nullify some of the control cards and cause them to be diagnosed as errors.
Multiple comment lines are allowed. Each must begin with an asterisk (*) or a slash (/) in the indicator area, or with a floating comment indicator (*>).
For more information about floating comment indicators, see Floating comment indicators (*>).
An asterisk (*) comment line is printed on the next available line in the output listing. The effect can be dependent on the LINECOUNT compiler option. For information about the LINECOUNT compiler option, see LINECOUNT in the Enterprise COBOL Programming Guide. A slash (/) comment line is printed on the first line of the next page, and the current page of the output listing is ejected.
The compiler treats a comment line as documentation, and does not check it syntactically.