COBOL source code differences in Enterprise COBOL Version 5 and Version 6

Several language elements have been removed or modified in Enterprise COBOL V5 and V6 that may require updates to your source programs.

Millennium Language Extensions

The Millennium Language Extensions are no longer supported. If your programs have any of these language elements, they must be removed before you can compile and run these programs with Enterprise COBOL V5 or V6:

DATE FORMAT clause
DATEVAL intrinsic function
UNDATE intrinsic function
YEARWINDOW intrinsic function

LABEL declarative

There have been changes to LABEL declarative support. If your programs have any of these language elements, they must be removed before you can compile and run these programs with Enterprise COBOL V5 or V6:

Format 2 declarative syntax: USE...AFTER...LABEL PROCEDURE... is no longer supported
The syntax: GO TO MORE-LABELS is no longer supported.

VOLATILE reserved word

Starting in Enterprise COBOL V5.2, VOLATILE is a new reserved word. Existing programs that use VOLATILE as a user-defined word (for example, as a data name or paragraph name) will get S-level diagnostic messages with Enterprise COBOL V5.2 and V6. You must change these instances of VOLATILE to other words such as VOLATILE-X, or you can use the CCCA utility to do it for you.

INSPECT...TALLYING behavior

For INSPECT...TALLYING, previous versions of the compiler insert zone nibbles in a signed numeric display inspected item before performing the INSPECT. This will, for example, change SPACES to ZEROS. COBOL V5 and later versions no longer do this zone normalization. Having INSPECT without a REPLACING clause update the inspected item was unexpected, and COBOL V5 and later versions do not do this.

There is no way to have COBOL V5 and later versions behave in the same unexpected way as COBOL V4. Adding or removing REPLACING will not replicate COBOL V4 and earlier behavior, which we consider to be in error. To avoid the unexpected behavior in COBOL V4, you can add a NUMERIC class test before the INSPECT, avoid moving spaces or alphanumeric data into the inspected item, or move zeroes into the inspected item. COBOL V5 and later versions will not unexpectedly modify the inspected data item.

For example:

01 TEST-DATA.
  02  NUM-DISP  PIC S9(9).

. . .

MOVE 0 To TALLY
MOVE SPACES TO TEST-DATA
INSPECT NUM-DISP TALLYING TALLY FOR ALL ZEROES
IF TALLY > 0 THEN
   DISPLAY 'This is COBOL V4 or earlier'
ELSE
   DISPLAY 'This is COBOL V6'

If your programs rely on this behavior, then you can change your program to do INSPECT, with REPLACING to, for example, replace SPACES with ZEROS in COBOL V6 programs:

INSPECT NUM-DISP REPLACING ALL SPACES BY '0'

This is effectively what COBOL V4 did, but you might have to replace other nonnumeric content of the signed numeric display data item.

Move instruction

When moving a 16-bit COMP-5 sender (PICTURE clause PIC 9(2) through PIC 9(4)), with value x'8000' or higher, to an alphanumeric data item, Enterprise COBOL V4.2 incorrectly uses an instruction that loads the value as a 32-bit value with the high sixteen bits all ones. This incorrectly changes the value that is moved to the PIC X(9) receiver. Enterprise COBOL V5 and V6 correctly load the 16-bit value as a 32-bit value with the high sixteen bits all zeros, which is correct, but is different from Enterprise COBOL V4.2.

Changes that apply to Enterprise COBOL V6 only

The following differences apply to Enterprise COBOL V6 specifically.

Reserved words

Starting in Enterprise COBOL V6.1, ALLOCATE, DEFAULT, END-JSON, FREE, JSON, and JSON-CODE are new reserved words. Existing programs that use these words as user-defined words (for example, as data names or paragraph names) will get S-level diagnostic messages with Enterprise COBOL V6. You must change instances of these reserved words to other words such as ALLOCATE-X or JSON-Y, or you can use the CCCA utility to do it for you.

Starting in Enterprise COBOL V6.2, JSON-STATUS is a new reserved word. Existing programs that use JSON-STATUS as a user-defined word (for example, as a data name or paragraph name) will get S-level diagnostic messages with Enterprise COBOL V6.2. You must change these instances of JSON-STATUS to other words such as JSON-STATUS-X, or you can use the CCCA utility to do it for you.

Starting in Enterprise COBOL V6.3, BYTE-LENGTH, JAVA, LIMIT, POINTER-32, and UTF-8 are new reserved words. Existing programs that use these words as user-defined words (for example, as data names or paragraph names) will get S-level diagnostic messages with Enterprise COBOL V6.3. You must change instances of these reserved words to other words such as BYTE-LENGTH-X or BYTE-LENGTH-Y, or you can use the CCCA utility to do it for you.

CURRENCY SIGN clause

Starting in Enterprise COBOL 6.3, in the CURRENCY SIGN clause of the SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph:

If the PICTURE SYMBOL phrase is not specified, then operand literal-6 can no longer be the character 'U' or the character 'u'.
If the PICTURE SYMBOL phrase is specified, then operand literal-7 can no longer be the character 'U' or the character 'u'.

VALUE clause

In Enterprise COBOL V5 and earlier versions, a non-88 level VALUE clause in the LINKAGE SECTION or the FILE SECTION was treated as a comment and ignored.

For example, with Enterprise COBOL V5 and earlier versions:

  000224          LINKAGE SECTION.                                                           
  000225            01 ALPH-ITEM  PIC X(4)  VALUE 1234.                                      
                                                                                                   
==000225==> IGYDS1158-I A non-level-88 "VALUE" clause was found in the 
"FILE SECTION" or "LINKAGE SECTION". The "VALUE" clause was treated as comments.

However, starting in Enterprise COBOL V6.1, the VALUE clause for the LINKAGE SECTION and the FILE SECTION items is now syntax checked and has meaning.

With Enterprise COBOL V6:

  000224          LINKAGE SECTION.                                                           
  000225            01 ALPH-ITEM  PIC X(4)  VALUE 1234.                                      
                                                                                                   
==000225==> IGYGR1080-S A "VALUE" clause literal was not compatible with the data 
category of the subject data item. The "VALUE" clause was discarded.

In V6:

If the data VALUE literal is incompatible with the PICTURE clause, as shown in the example above, the IGYGR1080-S error message will be issued.
If the data VALUE literal is compatible with the PICTURE clause, it will be used to initialize the data item in the LINKAGE SECTION when the data item is used in an INITIALIZE...TO VALUE statement.

In summary, a COBOL V5 program with a non-88 level VALUE clause in the LINKAGE SECTION that is compiled with an RC=0 could get an RC=12 with COBOL V6 or have the LINKAGE data item be initialized when the data item is used in an INITIALIZE...TO VALUE statement, depending on the validity of the VALUE clause literal.

CALL...USING `file-name` statement

The use of passing a file-name to a subprogram with the USING phrase of the CALL statement was removed in Enterprise COBOL V6.3, but is restored in Enterprise COBOL V6.3 with PTF for APAR PH20724 installed.