Group comparisons

For the comparison operation between fixed-length groups, each operand is treated as though it were an elementary data item of category alphanumeric of the same size as the operand, in bytes. The comparison then proceeds as for two elementary operands of category alphanumeric, as described in Alphanumeric comparisons.

Comparing a dynamic-length group with another group is not allowed.

Usage note: There is no conversion of data for group comparisons. The comparison operates on bytes of data without regard to data representation. The result of comparing an elementary item or literal operand to an alphanumeric group item is predictable when that operand and the content of the group item have the same data representation.