COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs

Procedure Division Verbs
HP COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs—522555-006
9-21
CALL
USING phrase
USING
marks the beginning of the parameter list. The Procedure Division header of
the called program must contain a corresponding USING phrase.
REFERENCE
specifies that the called program uses the actual data item of the calling
program. If the called program changes the value of the parameter, it changes
the value of the data item in the calling program. REFERENCE applies to all
the parameters that follow it until a CONTENT or VALUE phrase appears. This
is the default.
CONTENT
specifies that the calling program makes a copy of the data item and passes
the address of the copy to the called program. If the called program changes
the value of the parameter, it does not change the value of the data item in the
calling program. CONTENT applies to all the parameters that follow it until a
REFERENCE or VALUE phrase appears.
VALUE
specifies that the calling program passes the value of the data item to the
called program. Nothing that the called program does with the value affects the
data item in the calling program. VALUE applies to all the parameters that
follow it until a REFERENCE or CONTENT phrase appears.
If you specify VALUE, the called program must be not be written in COBOL
and you must compile the calling program with the PORT directive and either
the ENV COMMON or ENV LIBRARY directive.
VALUE is not an element of COBOL. If you also compile the calling program
with a FIPS directive with NONSTANDARDEXT in the flag-option-list,
the compiler issues a warning message if it finds the keyword VALUE.
USING
BY
REFERENCE
CONTENT
parameter-1
VALUE
parameter-2
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