Introduction to Cobol

Cobol is an acronym for Common Business Oriented Language where it is primarily developed for Business, Finance and Administrative
System Needs.

It is a high-level programming language very first developed by CODASYL committee (Conference on data systems languages)
in the early of the 1960s (the first compiler is implemented in the same year).

After that, it was assigned to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for developing new COBOL standards.

There are three ANSI standards for COBOL that have been developed in the respective years 1968, 1974 and 1985.

ANSI Cobol 1968 - It developed the standard form of the language in 1968 to overcome the problem of incompatibility between
versions and the version is known as American National Standard (ANS) Cobol.

Cobol 1974 - ANSI published a revised version of (ANS) COBOL which contains an additional set of features.

Cobol 1985 - ANSI published another revised version with new features like scope terminators,
which includes END-IF, END-PERFORM ..etc

Cobol 2002 and Object Oriented Cobol - The language version which is using today contains object orientation.

Some Characteristics of COBOL

Cobol is Self-Documenting

One of the design goals for COBOL was to make it possible for non-programmers such as supervisors, managers, and users to read
and understand the COBOL code.

Cobol is Simple

It is a simple language. No pointers, no user-defined functions, no user-defined types and a limited scope of function.

Cobol applications regularly run-in critical business areas.

A Cobol application deals with a large number of data regularly.

Example: Bank Transactions.

Different Environments using COBOL programs

Based on the usage of COBOL and using the program execution, the application programs can be divided into two types.

1. Batch.

2. Online.

Let's discuss the differences between batch and online COBOL programming.


Batch Programming

Batch Programs needed JCL (JOB CONTROL LANGUAGE) to EXECUTE.

Online Programming

Online Programs did not need any other language to execute and will trigger immediately when the task initiated by the user.


Batch Programming

These programs contain COBOL, can be used with the below combination of programming languages which are optional.

➤ COBOL Programs.

➤ COBOL+DB2 Programs.

➤ COBOL+DB2+VSAM Programs.

➤ COBOL+DB2+VSAM+IMS DB Programs.

Online Programming

These programs contain COBOL+CICS, can be used with the below combination of programming languages which are optional.

➤ COBOL+CICS Programs.

➤ COBOL+DB2+CICS Programs.

➤ COBOL+DB2+VSAM+CICS Programs.

➤ COBOL+DB2+VSAM+CICS+IMS DB Programs.


Batch Programming

Batch is run detached from a terminal.

Online Programming

Online is run connected to a terminal to initiate the tasks.


Batch is program driven.

Online is data driven.


Batch Processing is execution of a series of Programs ("jobs") on a computer without manual intervention.

Online Programs Prompt the user to provide the input.


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