COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs

Data Division
HP COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs—522555-006
7-69
USAGE Clause
USAGE Clause
The USAGE clause determines how a data item is stored in the system (its format),
and usually, the number of character positions the data item uses.
BINARY
COMPUTATIONAL
COMP
describe a two’s complement binary integer with an implied decimal point.
COMPUTATIONAL-3
COMP-3
PACKED-DECIMAL
describe a numeric data item in radix 10, but with each digit of the value stored in
half a computer character (4 bits, called a nibble). The sign is stored in a separate,
trailing nibble; that is, at the right-hand (least significant) end of the data item. Any
unused nibbles are on the left-hand (most significant) end of the data item and are
set to zero. SeeTable 7-5, Table 7-6, and Table 7-7.
COMPUTATIONAL-3/PACKED-DECIMAL is also called binary coded decimal form.
The keyword PACKED-DECIMAL is an element of COBOL, but the data format is
not. If your program is compiled with a FIPS directive with NONSTANDARDEXT in
the flag-option-list, the compiler issues a warning message when it finds a
COMPUTATIONAL-3/PACKED-DECIMAL data item.
BINARY
COMPUTATIONAL
COMP
DISPLAY
INDEX
NATIVE-2
NATIVE-4
NATIVE-8
PACKED-DECIMAL
USAGE IS
COMPUTATIONAL-3
COMP-3
COMPUTATIONAL-5
COMP-5
POINTER
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