COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs

Data Division
HP COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs—522555-006
7-19
File Description Entries
VARYING phrase
explicitly declares that the file consists of variable-length records (records of
different sizes).
length-min
is as defined previously. The default is the size of the shortest record
description entry.
length-max
is as defined previously. The default is the size of the longest record
description entry.
length-var
is the data-name of an unsigned integer numeric data item. It tells the
REWRITE and WRITE statements how many characters to deliver, and
receives the size (in characters) of any record that was read successfully. It
can be qualified, but not subscripted or reference-modified.
Record size is the actual number of bytes needed to store the record, determined by
the sum of bytes for each fixed-length elementary item plus the maximum number of
bytes for any variable-length item. The number of bytes for an item also depends on its
USAGE clause, and if synchronization is active, any filler from alignment on storage
boundaries.
IS
VARYING
IN SIZE
FROM
length-min
DEPENDING
length-var
TO
length-max
ON
CHARACTERS
VST092.vsd