READ xxx INTO yyy is COBOL shorthand for READ xxx followed by MOVE
xxx-record-area to yyy.
COBOL MOVE's (even implied moves) are *supposed* to respect the value of the
OCCURS DEPENDING ON variable value, so this *should* work with no programmer
intervention, but I haven't actually done exactly this so I am not positive.
To be "safe", I would tell the programmer to set up a record-length variable
for the COBOL FILE (so that after any READ he knows the exact length of the
record that was read) and then use SEPARATE READ and MOVE statements that look
like this:
READ xxx
AT END (do endfile processing)
NOT AT END MOVE xxx-record-area (1 : record-length-variable) TO yyy (1
: occurs-depending-on-variable)
END-READ
That will move the shorter of the two lengths into the yyy variable, up to but
not past the value of the occurs-depending-on-variable.
Record length variables for varying-length files are set in the RECORD clause
of the FILE SECTION FD file entry (RECORD VARYING DEPENDING ON
record-length-variable).
There is no way in COBOL to set up a record-length-variable in the FILE SECTION
for a fixed-length file. For a fixed-length file, just set up a
WORKING-STORAGE record-length-variable binary VALUE actual-fixed-record-length.
HTH
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of John McKown
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 1:02 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: COBOL "problem" (not really), but sort of.
A programmer came by today with a problem. He is sometimes getting a S0C4-4
abend in a COBOL program. This is a subroutine. One of the parameters
passed in is a data area, which can be of various lengths. It is defined
with an OCCURS DEPENDING ON with a data element within the area. I.e. the
first 05 level is PIC S9(5) COMP. The subroutine does a READ of a data set
into this area. This is where the abend occurs. The reason is because the
OCCURS DEPENDING ON maximum size is significantly larger than what the
caller is passing it. And the READ to the 01 is trying to pad the entire
possible 01 level with blanks.
The problem is how do I describe this to a COBOL programmer who just
doesn't "get it". He expects COBOL to _not_ pad the "non existent"
occurrences with blanks. And, if fact, to not even reference this area
wherein they would have resided, had they existed. I'm just get "deer in
headlights" looks. I'm not using the correct words, somehow.
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