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

COBOL provides these types of implicit transfers of control that override the statement-to-statement
mechanism:
1. When a paragraph is being executed under control of another COBOL statement (for example,
MERGE, PERFORM, SORT, and USE), and it is the last paragraph in the range of the controlling
statement, an implied transfer of control occurs from the last statement in the paragraph to the
control mechanism of the controlling statement. If several controlling statements are active, the
transfer is to the last statement executed. Furthermore, if a paragraph is being executed under
the control of a PERFORM statement that causes iterative execution and that paragraph is the
first one in the range of the PERFORM statement, an implicit transfer of control occurs between
the control mechanism associated with the PERFORM statement and the first executable
statement in the paragraph for each iterative execution of the paragraph.
2. When a SORT or MERGE statement is executed, an implicit transfer of control occurs to any
associated input or output procedures. Another implicit transfer of control occurs after the
execution of such a procedure, as described in item 1.
3. When the execution of any COBOL statement causes the condition described in the USE
statement of a declarative section, an implicit transfer of control occurs to that section. Another
implicit transfer of control occurs after the execution of the declarative section, as described
in item 1.
The statement-to-statement transfers of control ignore the existence of COPY, REPLACE, and USE
statements. Although control never passes to a USE statement itself, the existence of a USE statement
generates the control mechanism for implicit transfers of control to and from the section in which
it appears.
The term next executable statement refers to the next COBOL statement to which a process is to
transfer control according to the rules given previously and the rules associated with each language
element in the Procedure Division. There is no next executable statement in these situations:
1. The execution of the last statement in a program does not cause an explicit transfer of control,
and the paragraph in which it appears is not being executed under the control of some other
COBOL statement. Following the execution of such a statement, execution of the program
terminates. When it is a called program, control reverts to the calling program as if an EXIT
PROGRAM statement were executed; otherwise, execution of the run unit terminates as if a
STOP RUN statement were executed.
2. The program contains no Procedure Division. Execution of such a program proceeds as if it
contained a Procedure Division with a single paragraph consisting of a CONTINUE statement.
Control then passes from the program as described in item 1.
3. An EXIT PROGRAM statement is executed within a called program. In this case, control reverts
to the calling program.
4. A STOP RUN statement is executed within any program. In this case, execution of the run unit
terminates.
Execution of the Procedure Division 241