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

You can use the BLANK WHEN ZERO clause only with elementary numeric or elementary numeric
edited data items. This clause revises the category of a numeric item to numeric edited; therefore,
the item must be USAGE DISPLAY.
NOTE: The BLANK WHEN ZERO clause has no effect on initialization by the VALUE clause.
The BLANK WHEN ZERO clause cannot be used for national data items.
VALUE Clause
This form of the VALUE clause assigns an initial value to an elementary data item or data structure
described in the Working-Storage Section or Extended-Storage Section. For the form of the VALUE
clause that assigns an initial value to a condition-name in any section of the Data Division, see
Descriptions of Condition-Names for Values (Level 88).
literal
is a literal or a figurative constant whose value is the initial value of the data item.
Usage Considerations:
• Restrictions on Use of the VALUE Clause
Do not use a VALUE clause in the description of:
◦ A data item described with an EXTERNAL clause
◦ An elementary data item described with a USAGE INDEX or REDEFINES clause or
subordinate to a data structure described with a VALUE or REDEFINES clause
◦ A data structure that has a subordinate item described with a JUSTIFIED or
SYNCHRONIZED clause, a USAGE clause other than USAGE DISPLAY (the default), or
(except for a condition-name) a VALUE clause
• Restrictions on the Value of literal
Numeric data items
If the data item is numeric, literal must be a numeric literal or the figurative constant
ZERO, ZEROS, or ZEROES. The keyword ALL cannot appear in the figurative constant.
◦
If literal is a numeric literal, its value must not require the truncation of nonzero digits;
that is, the number of significant fraction digits in literal cannot exceed the number
of fraction digits in the numeric data item, and the number of significant integral digits
in literal cannot exceed the number of integral digits in the numeric data item.
If literal is a signed numeric literal, it must either be NATIVE-n or have an associated
signed numeric PICTURE character-string. Initialization follows standard alignment rules
for numeric data items.
◦ Nonnumeric data items
If the data item is nonnumeric, literal must be nonnumeric or a figurative constant.
The keyword ALL can appear in the figurative constant.
Descriptions of Records (Levels 01-49) 219