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

Table 12 Reserved Word Categories (continued)
ExamplesDefinitionCategory
Words that name and reference constant valuesFigurative
constants
SPACE
ZERO
Required arithmetic and relational operators, used in arithmetic
expressions and relation conditions, respectively
Special-character
words
+
-
*
/
**
=
<
>
<=
>=
* LINE-COUNTER and PAGE-COUNTER are associated with the Report Writer and are not available in HP COBOL.
For a list of all reserved words, see Chapter 21: Reserved Words.
User-Defined Names
A user-defined name is a COBOL word that you compose for your own use. You cannot use a
reserved word for a user-defined name. You can compose words for these types of items:
segment-numberparagraph-nameindex-namealphabet-name
symbolic-characterprogram-namelevel-numberclass-name
text-nameroutine-namelibrary-namedata-reference
section-namemnemonic-namefile-name
In general, each user-defined name in each category must identify a unique entity within the source
program. Exceptions:
• Level-numbers and segment-numbers have no uniqueness constraints.
• Using an all-digit word as a section-name or paragraph-name does not interfere with its
concurrent use as a level-number or a segment-number.
• The same paragraph-name can identify two or more paragraphs if each paragraph appears
in a different section of the Procedure Division.
• Using a word as a library-name does not interfere with its concurrent use as the name of an
entity in another category (this is an HP extension to COBOL, which does not permit a
library-name to duplicate the name of another entity); however, library-names must be unique
among themselves.
• Using a word as a text-name does not interfere with its concurrent use as the name of an entity
in another category. The same text-name can identify two or more library texts if each text
appears in a different library.
• The category data-reference includes record-names, data-names, and condition-names. The
same user-defined name can identify two or more entities in any combination of these
subcategories; however, a program cannot reference the entities identified by a duplicated
name unless the contexts of their definitions permit sufficient qualification to construct a unique
reference to each of them (see Qualified Names).
System-Names
Although COBOL does not define any specific system-names, it includes several syntactic definitions
that require them. COBOL limits the forms of system-names to those permitted for user-defined
Character-Strings 65