From the course: COBOL Essential Training

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How to define types of data

How to define types of data - COBOL Tutorial

From the course: COBOL Essential Training

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How to define types of data

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- [Instructor] In COBOL, variables are defined with a level number, such as 01, 05, 10, et cetera. a data name, such as WS item one, a picture clause, such as PIC 999, and an optional value clause, such as value spaces. To start a new data name, you must specify the level number, which represents the hierarchy of data within a record, and identifies any special purpose data entries. This is usually 01 for the field description entry, and group level items. 02-49 represent elementary items. Level 66 is reserved for the rename clause, which identifies an alternative grouping of data items. 77 is for items that cannot be subdivided. And we'll see a lot of level 88, which is used for condition name entries. We'll see additional examples of all of these throughout the course. Let's take a look at some data fields in our program. To talk about data types in COBOL, I've decided to use another program I created called…

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