iTS 1.0+)

SCREEN COBOL Source Program

Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual—426750-001

2-25

Data Reference

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.

Qualification syntax is:

{ data-name } [ { OF } qualification-name ] ...

{ condition-name } [ { IN } ]

paragraph-name [ { OF } section-name ]

[ { IN } ]

copy-text [ { OF } library-name ]

[ { IN } ]