COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs

Environment Division
HP COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs—522555-006
6-18
SPECIAL-NAMES Paragraph
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Program Collating Sequence and Figurative Constants
You can use the literal phrase of the ALPHABET clause to specify an arbitrary
collating sequence for use in nonnumeric comparisons, sorting, and the intrinsic
functions CHAR and ORD. For information on nonnumeric comparisons, see
Arithmetic Operations. For information on sorting, see SORT. For information on
the intrinsic functions CHAR and ORD, see CHAR Function and ORD Function.
The character that has the highest ordinal position in the specified program
collating sequence is associated with the figurative constant HIGH-VALUE. If more
than one character has the highest position, the last character specified is
associated with HIGH-VALUE.
The character that has the lowest ordinal position in the specified program collating
sequence is associated with the figurative constant LOW-VALUE. If more than one
character has the lowest position, the first character specified is associated with
LOW-VALUE.
SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS Clause
The SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS clause assigns a name to a character, which can then
be referenced as a figurative constant. It is especially useful for nonprinting characters
that some input interfaces cannot except, such as the end-of-text character EXT.
character-list
assigns the name symbolic-char to the character in position within
alphabet-name, enabling you to reference the character as a figurative constant.
A character-list must have equal numbers of symbolic-char and
position. The first symbolic-char corresponds to the first position, and so
on.
symbolic-char
is a user-defined COBOL word. No symbolic-char can appear more than
once in the set of SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS clauses in one program.
SYMBOLIC
character-list
CHARACTERS
VST030.vsd
symbolic-char
IN
ARE
IS
position
alphabet-name
VST031.vsd