Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual (H06.10+, J06.03+)

SCREEN COBOL Source Program
HP NonStop Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual—426750-003
2-25
Data Reference
The term FILLER is a keyword that takes the place of a data name when it is
unimportant to name an item. Because occurrences of a table element do not have
individual names, a reference to an occurrence must give its position number along
with the data name of the table. The method of giving the position number, called
subscripting, is described later in this section.
Data Reference
All items must be named so they can be referenced. Items given unique names can
be referenced with no difficulty, but many programs contain items that do not have
unique names. All elements of a table, for example, share a single name. Also, the
same name can be used for more than one data item, and the same paragraph name
can be used in different sections of the Procedure Division.
Names must be unique or made unique through qualification or subscripting.
Qualification
Every name must be unique, either because no other name has the same spelling and
hyphenation, or because the name is subordinate to a unique name. In the latter case,
including one or more of the higher-level names qualifies the subordinate item and
makes it unique. Although enough qualification must be present to make a name
unique, it is not necessary to include all levels.
•
For data name references, group names can be used for qualification. Level 01
names are the most significant qualifiers, then level 02, and so forth.
•
For condition-name references, the name of the condition variable can be used as
qualification, even if the variable is an elementary item.
•
For paragraph name references, the section name is the only qualifier available.
References to paragraphs within the same section never require qualification.
•
For copy text references in COPY statements, the copy text name must be
qualified if the text library that defines it is not the default library for the compilation.
•
Level 01 names and section names must be unique because they cannot be
further qualified. Regardless of available qualification, a name cannot be both a
data name and a procedure name.
An item is qualified by following a data name, a condition-name, a paragraph name, or
a copy text name by one or more phrases composed of a qualifier preceded by
connective IN or OF. IN and OF are equivalent.