Format 2 (program)

You can specify EXIT PROGRAM only in the PROCEDURE DIVISION of a program. EXIT PROGRAM must not be used in a declarative procedure in which the GLOBAL phrase is specified.

If control reaches an EXIT PROGRAM statement in a program that does not possess the INITIAL attribute while operating under the control of a CALL statement (that is, the CALL statement is active), control returns to the point in the calling routine (program or method) immediately following the CALL statement. The state of the calling routine is identical to that which existed at the time it executed the CALL statement. The contents of data items and the contents of data files shared between the calling and called routine could have been changed. The state of the called program or method is not altered except that the ends of the ranges of all executed PERFORM statements are considered to have been reached.

The execution of an EXIT PROGRAM statement in a called program that possesses the INITIAL attribute is equivalent also to executing a CANCEL statement referencing that program.

If control reaches an EXIT PROGRAM statement, and no CALL statement is active, control passes through the exit point to the next executable statement.

If a subprogram specifies the PROCEDURE DIVISION RETURNING phrase, the value in the data item referred to by the RETURNING phrase becomes the result of the subprogram invocation.

The EXIT PROGRAM statement should be the last statement in a sequence of imperative statements. When it is not, statements following the EXIT PROGRAM will not be executed if a CALL statement is active.

When there is no next executable statement in a called program, an implicit EXIT PROGRAM statement is executed.