Support for COBOL data description entries

In the COBOL data description entries specified in a copybook, File Manager supports:

  • ASSIGN clause
  • OCCURS clause (including OCCURS DEPENDING ON)
  • PICTURE clause
  • REDEFINES clause
  • RENAMES clause
  • USAGE clause
  • VALUE clause

File Manager ignores:

  • BLANK WHEN ZERO clause
  • DATE FORMAT clause
  • EXTERNAL clause
  • GLOBAL clause
  • JUSTIFIED clause
Note: In general, File Manager treats Numeric Edited fields as alphanumeric. A special code, ZA, is used for unsupported zoned decimals.

File Manager supports all data item level numbers except 88 (condition-names).

The literal value that you specify in a VALUE clause is used in the template to specify the Start value (for numeric fields) or Pattern (for alphanumeric fields) “create attribute” on the Field Attributes panel for that field.

File Manager uses this attribute to initialize the value of the field when creating data or inserting new fields when copying data.