PICTURE string with editing symbols

When a data item contains editing symbols in its PICTURE string, the character positions represented by those symbols will contain editing characters when data is moved into the data item. In a VALUE clause, initialization is not affected by the editing symbols. This means that the data in the VALUE clause will be placed into the item as is, and editing will not take place as it does in the MOVE statement.

Here's how it works under CMPR2:

01 E PIC X/X VALUE SPACE. (Result = "   ")
   88 V VALUE SPACE.

SET V TO TRUE             (Result = " / ")
MOVE SPACE TO E           (Result = " / ")

Here's how it works under NOCMPR2:

01 E PIC X/X VALUE SPACE. (Result = "   ")
   88 V VALUE SPACE.
SET V TO TRUE             (Result = "   ")

MOVE SPACE TO E           (Result = " / ")

If the behavior exhibited under CMPR2 is required under NOCMPR2, the data in the VALUE clause for the 88-level item must be specified in edited form:

01 E PIC X/X VALUE SPACE. (Result = "   ")
   88 V VALUE " / ".

SET V TO TRUE             (Result = " / ")
MOVE SPACE TO E           (Result = " / ")