Allowable comparisons for the IF command (COBOL)

The following table shows the allowable comparisons for the z/OS® Debugger IF command. A description of the codes follows the table.

For Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Version 5, z/OS Debugger supports all the same comparisons that are supported in the COBOL language, so the following table does not apply. See the Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Language Reference for more information.

OPERAND GR AL AN ED BI NE ANE NDI
NN
DI
 ID IN IDI PTR @ IF EF D1
Group (GR) NN NN NN NN NN NN NN NN10   NN   NN     NN NN  
Alphabetic (AL) NN NN           NN                  
Alpha numeric (AN)8 NN   NN         NN                  
External Decimal (ED)8 NN     NU                          
Binary NN       NU           NU4            
Numeric Edited (NE) NN         NN                      
Alphanumeric Edited (ANE) NN           NN NN                  
FIGCON ZERO7 NN     NU NU     NN   NU         NU NU  
FIGCON1,7 NN NN NN       NN NN9 NU                
National Data Item (NDI) NN10 NN NN       NN NN                  
National Numeric Data Item (NNDI)                 NN                
Numeric Literal7 NN     NU NU       NN NU NU4       NU NU  
Alphanumeric Literal2,7 NN NN3 NN     NN NN NN                  
Alphanumeric hex literal11 NN NN NN     NN NN                    
Internal Decimal (ID)8 NN                 NU              
Index Name (IN) NN       NU4           IO4 NU          
Index Data Item (IDI) NN                   NU IV          
Pointer Data Item (PTR)                         NU5 NU5      
Address of (@)                         NU5 NU5      
Floating Point Literal7 X                           NU NU  
Internal Floating Point (IF) NN                           NU NU  
External Floating Point (EF) NN                           NU NU  
DBCS data item (D1)                                 NN
DBCS Literal7                                 NN
Address hex Literal6                         NU5 NU5      
National Literal NN10             NN                  
National Hex Literal12 NN10             NN                  
Notes:
  1. FIGCON includes all figurative constants except ZERO and ALL.
  2. A alphanumeric literal must be enclosed in quotation marks (") or apostrophes ('). A quotation mark or apostrophe embedded in the string must be followed by another quotation mark or apostrophe when it is used as the opening delimiter.
  3. Must contain only alphabetic characters.
  4. Index name converted to subscript value before compare.
  5. Only comparison for equal and not equal can be made.
  6. Must be hexadecimal characters only, delimited by either quotation marks (") or apostrophes (') and preceded by H.
  7. Constants and literals can also be compared against constants and literals of the same type.
  8. Comparisons using windowed date fields are not supported.
  9. The figurative constants HIGH-VALUES and LOW-VALUES are not allowed in comparisons with national data items.
  10. Conversion of internal format is not done before the comparison.
  11. Must be hexadecimal characters only, delimited by either quotation marks (") or apostrophes (') and preceded by X.
  12. Must be hexadecimal characters only, delimited by either quotation marks (") or apostrophes (') and preceded by NX.
Allowable comparisons are comparisons as described in IBM® OS Full American National Standard COBOL for the following:
NN
Nonnumeric operands
NU
Numeric operands
IO
Two index names
IV
Index data items
X
High potential for user error

Refer to the following topics for more information related to the material discussed in this topic.

  • Related references
  • IBM OS Full American National Standard COBOL