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

ADVANCING clause
advances the file (skips lines) before or after the record is written to it. The default ADVANCING
clause is AFTER ADVANCING 1. The ADVANCING clause can be used only with files assigned
to processes or printers.
BEFORE
specifies that the record is to be printed before any lines are skipped.
AFTER
specifies that the record is to be printed after any lines are skipped.
no-of-lines
is a numeric integer literal, or the identifier of a numeric integer data item, whose value is
greater than or equal to zero and represents the number of lines to advance before or after
the write operation.
NOTE: When no-of-lines has the value -1, HP COBOL advances to the top of a
page; however, setting no-of-lines to -1 is not recommended, because it could interfere
with later extensions to COBOL that would allow backspacing one line. To go to the top
of a page, use BEFORE PAGE or AFTER PAGE.
mnemonic-name
specifies a channel position on a carriage-control tape that directs the printer to skip lines
(advancing to a particular channel is usually faster than printing lines of spaces).
mnemonic-name is defined in a SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph for a printer (or a process
simulating a printer) with the CHANNEL option. mnemonic-name is not permitted for a
file described with a LINAGE clause.
PAGE
advances the printer to the top of the page before or after the write operation. PAGE and
end-of-page clause cannot appear in the same WRITE statement.
end-of-page clause
executes imperative-statement when the write operation encounters the end-of-page
condition. The file description must include a LINAGE clause.
488 Procedure Division Verbs