Built-in code review rules for COBOL

The Code Review component supports built-in code review rules for COBOL.

These rules are built into the Code Review for COBOL component and do not require parameters. You can select these rules from the Enterprise COBOL, Naming Conventions, Performance, and Program Structures categories in the software analysis configuration window. For more information about using this window, see Creating a software analysis configuration.

  • Enterprise COBOL:
    Avoid language elements that are obsolete in Enterprise COBOL 5.1
    Use this rule to flag any language element that is obsolete in IBM® Enterprise COBOL for z/OS®. The following elements are flagged:
    • Obsolete compiler options:
      • DATEPROC
      • LIB
      • NOLIB
      • NOCMPR2
      • NOOPTIMIZE or NOOPT
      • NUMPROC, suboption MIG
      • OPTIMIZE or OPT, suboptions FULL, STD, and none
      • SIZE, suboption MAX
      • TEST, suboptions HOOK, NOHOOK, SEPARATE, NOSEPARATE
      • XMLPARSE
      • YEARWINDOW

    Avoid language elements that are not supported in Enterprise COBOL 5.1
    Use this rule to flag any language element that is not supported in IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS. The following elements are flagged:
    • Unsupported compiler options:
      • EVENTS
      • FDUMP
      • FLAGSAA
      • PFDSIGN
      • RES
      • TEST, suboptions ALL, BLOCK, PATH, STMT, NONE, SYM, NOSYM
    • Data description entry, DATEFORMAT clause
    • Unsupported intrinsic functions:
      • DATEVAL
      • UNDATE
      • YEARWINDOW
    • Unsupported label declaratives:
      • GO TO MORE-LABELS
      • USE...AFTER...LABEL PROCEDURE...

  • Naming conventions:
    Use a program name that matches the source file name
    Use this rule to flag any PROGRAM-ID division whose program name is different from its source file name. The file extension, if any, of the source file is excluded from the comparison.
  • Performance:

    Avoid INITIALIZE statements. Use elementary MOVE statements or VALUE clauses.
    Use this rule to flag INITIALIZE statements.
    Avoid OCCURS DEPENDING ON phrases
    Use this rule to flag OCCURS DEPENDING ON phrases.
    Avoid using subscripts to access a table. Use indexes.
    Use this rule to flag any data item that has the following characteristics:
    • It is used as a subscript to access a table element
    • It is not specified in an INDEXED BY phrase in the OCCURS clause that defines the table.

    This rule does not flag subscripts that are literals.

    EXEC SQL: Avoid SELECT *
    Use this rule to flag EXEC SQL statements that contain a SELECT * statement
    EXEC SQL: Use an ORDER BY clause when declaring a cursor
    Use this rule to flag EXEC SQL statements that declare a cursor without specifying an ORDER BY clause in the contained SELECT statement.
    Specify 0 RECORDS for BLOCK CONTAINS clauses in file description entries
    Use this rule to flag BLOCK CONTAINS clauses that do not specify 0 RECORDS.
    Use an EVALUATE statement rather than a nested IF statement
    Use this rule to flag nested IF statements. If the nesting is more than one level deep, then the rule flags only the outermost nested IF statement.

    Compare the template Avoid nesting IF statements deeper than a specified number of levels.

    Use an odd number of digits in a COMP-3 or PACKED-DECIMAL data definition
    Use this rule to flag any data definition that is declared as type COMP-3 or PACKED-DECIMAL and does not contain an odd number of digits.
    Use binary subscripts
    Use this rule to flag any data item that has the following characteristics:
    • It is used as a subscript to access a table element.
    • It is not declared with a usage of COMP, COMPUTATIONAL, or BINARY.

    This rule does not flag subscripts that are literals.

  • Program Structures:

    Avoid ACCEPT statements
    Use this rule to flag all ACCEPT statements.

    Compare the rule Avoid ACCEPT statements containing FROM CONSOLE or FROM SYSIN.

    Avoid ACCEPT statements containing FROM CONSOLE or FROM SYSIN
    Use this rule to flag ACCEPT statements that contain the phrase FROM CONSOLE or FROM SYSIN.

    To flag all ACCEPT statements without exception, use the rule AVOID ACCEPT statements.

    Avoid ALTER statements
    Use this rule to flag ALTER statements.
    Avoid CALL statements with a literal program name.
    Use this rule to flag CALL statements that specify the program name as a literal.
    Avoid CANCEL statements
    Use this rule to flag CANCEL statements.
    Avoid COPY SUPPRESS statements
    Use this rule to flag COPY statements that contain the SUPPRESS phrase.
    Avoid CORRESPONDING phrases
    Use this rule to flag ADD, SUBTRACT, and MOVE statements that contain a CORRESPONDING phrase.
    Avoid DISPLAY statements containing UPON CONSOLE
    Use this rule to flag DISPLAY statements that contain UPON CONSOLE.
    Avoid ENTRY statements
    Use this rule to flag ENTRY statements.
    Avoid EXIT PROGRAM statements
    Use this rule to flag EXIT PROGRAM statements.
    Avoid GO TO statements
    Use this rule to flag all GO TO statements.

    Compare the rule Avoid GO TO statements, except those that reference an exit paragraph.

    Avoid GO TO statements, except those that reference an exit paragraph
    Use this rule to flag all GO TO statements, except the statements that transfer control to an exit paragraph. An exit paragraph is a paragraph that contains only an EXIT statement.

    To flag all GO TO statements without exception, use the rule Avoid GO TO statements.

    Avoid IF without ELSE
    Use this rule to flag IF statements that do not contain an ELSE clause.
    Avoid NEXT SENTENCE phrases
    Use this rule to flag all NEXT SENTENCE phrases.

    Compare the rule Use CONTINUE rather than NEXT SENTENCE inside a scoped range.

    Avoid PERFORM, except PERFORM section
    Use this rule to flag all PERFORM statements, except the statements that contain sections only.
    Note: This rule flags all PERFORM statements except PERFORM section-name or PERFORM section-name-1 THRU section-name-2. Inline PERFORM statements and PERFORM statements that reference paragraphs are flagged.
    Avoid RESERVE clauses in FILE-CONTROL paragraphs
    Use this rule to flag RESERVE clauses in FILE-CONTROL paragraphs.
    Avoid STOP RUN and STOP literal statements
    Use this rule to flag STOP RUN and STOP literal statements.
    Avoid THRU phrases in PERFORM statements
    Use this rule to flag PERFORM statements that include a THRU phrase.
    Avoid using level-88 entries in data descriptions
    Use this rule to flag data descriptions that use level-88 entries. Each level-88 entry is flagged.
    Avoid using more than one EXIT statement per section
    Use this rule to flag sections that contain more than one EXIT statement.
    Avoid using SECTION in the procedure division
    Use this rule to flag any SECTION declarations in the procedure division.
    Avoid XML PARSE statements
    Use this rule to flag XML PARSE statements.
    EXEC CICS®: Check EIBRESP after NOHANDLE
    Use this rule to flag any EXEC CICS statement that specifies the NOHANDLE option and is not followed by an IF statement or an EVALUATE statement that checks the value of EIBRESP.
    The EXEC CICS statement is flagged if it is not followed by either of the following statements:
    • An IF or EVALUATE statement that references EIBRESP
    • A PERFORM statement that leads to a block of code whose first statement is an IF or EVALUATE statement that references EIBRESP
    EXEC CICS: Use DFHRESP to check the return value
    This rule applies to data items that are used as the RESP or RESP2 parameter of an EXEC CICS command.
    Use this rule to flag a comparison between such a data item and anything other than the return value of a DFHRESP function call, in the following contexts:
    • In any relation condition
    • In any WHEN unit of a SELECT statement in which the data item is the selection subject

    This rule examines all EXEC CICS blocks for exception handling by RESP() or RESP2() and the COBOL definition of the variable that is used is recorded. All relation conditions, such as conditions in IF, ELSE, and EVALUATE WHEN statements, are searched for this variable. If matches are found and if an equality check is made against anything other than the DFHRESP macro, then the relation condition is recorded as a rule violation. In addition, any EVALUATE statement that uses the response variable as its WHAT condition then has its WHEN clauses examined. If they contain anything other than references to the DFHRESP macro, the WHEN clauses are flagged as rule violations.

    EXEC CICS: Use the RESP option
    Use this rule to flag EXEC CICS commands that do not include the RESP option.

    This rule examines all EXEC CICS blocks and checks that a RESP() option is present. If no option is present, the block is flagged as a violation.

    EXEC SQL: Check the value of SQLCODE after an EXEC SQL statement
    Use this rule to flag any EXEC SQL statement that is not followed by an IF statement or an EVALUATE statement that checks the value of SQLCODE.
    The EXEC SQL statement is flagged if it is not followed by either of the following statements:
    • An IF or EVALUATE statement that references SQLCODE
    • A PERFORM statement that leads to a block of code whose first statement is an IF or EVALUATE statement that references SQLCODE
    Use an EXIT paragraph in each section
    Use this rule to flag sections that do not contain an exit paragraph. An exit paragraph is a paragraph that contains only an EXIT statement.
    Use a WHEN OTHER phrase with an EVALUATE statement
    Use this rule to flag EVALUATE statements that do not include a WHEN OTHER phrase.
    Use CONTINUE rather than NEXT SENTENCE inside a scoped range
    Use this rule to flag NEXT SENTENCE statements that lie within the scope of any statement that has an explicit scope terminator. For example, a NEXT SENTENCE statement is flagged if it lies between an IF statement and its corresponding END-IF phrase.

    Statements that have an explicit scope terminator include ADD, CALL, COMPUTE, DELETE, DIVIDE, EVALUATE, IF, INVOKE, MULTIPLY, PERFORM, READ, RETURN, REWRITE, SEARCH, START, STRING, SUBTRACT, UNSTRING, WRITE, and XML.

    To flag all NEXT SENTENCE statements without exception, use the rule AVOID NEXT SENTENCE phrases.

    Use CURRENT-DATE rather than ACCEPT DATE or ACCEPT TIME
    Use this rule to flag ACCEPT DATE and ACCEPT TIME statements.
    Use level numbers in the sequence 01, 05, 10, 15, ...
    Use this rule to flag data structure definitions that contain level numbers with the following characteristics:
    • They are not in ascending sequence.
    • They do not have a value of either 1 or a multiple of 5.
    Use SEARCH ALL rather than SEARCH to search a table
    Use this rule to flag table searches that use SEARCH rather than SEARCH ALL.
    Use THRU phrases in PERFORM statements
    Use this rule to flag PERFORM statements that do not include a THRU phrase.