COBOL Manual for TNS/E Programs (H06.08+, J06.03+)

Qualified Condition-Name:
Qualified Data-Name:
Qualified Paragraph-Name:
Qualified Text-Name:
Qualified LINAGE COUNTER:
Within the Data Division, you can use file-names from file description (FD) or sort-merge file
description (SD) entries and data-names from data description entries for qualification. Within the
levels of qualification, file-names (names associated with level indicators FD and SD) are most
significant, then data-names for level-01 items, and then data names for level-02 items, and so on
to level-49 items. The name of a conditional variable can qualify any of its condition-names.
These rules apply to qualification of names:
• Each qualifier must be at a higher level than the previous one and stay within the same structure
of the name it qualifies.
• The same name cannot occur at different levels in a structure; otherwise, the name could
qualify itself.
• A data-name used as a qualifier cannot be subscripted; all subscripts that apply to a qualified
data-name appear after all qualifiers.
• A name can be qualified even though it does not need qualification. If there is more than one
combination of qualifiers that make a name unique, then any one of them will do, including
complete qualification (naming all qualifiers). HP COBOL permits a name to be qualified
completely, with a name from every level of its structure.
• If a data-name or a condition-name is assigned to more than one element in a source program,
the data-name or condition-name must be qualified each time it is referred to in the Procedure,
Environment, and Data divisions (except in the REDEFINES clause where, by context,
qualification is unnecessary). The name of a data-item can be used as the lowest level qualifier
for any of its associated condition-names.
68 Language Elements