COBOL PICTURE Clauses COBOL Picture Clause Usage Descriptions

Some examples

- PICTURE 999 a three digit (+iveonly) integer

- PICTURE S999 a three digit (+ive/-ive) integer

- PICTURE XXXX a four character text item or string

- PICTURE 99V99 a +ive‘real’in the range 0 to 99.99

- PICTURE S9V9 a +ive/-ive‘real’in the range ?

- If you wish you can use the abbreviation PIC.

- Numeric values can have a maximum of 18 (eighteen) digits (i.e. 9’s).

- The limit on string values is usually system-dependent.

Abbreviating recurring symbols

Recurring symbols can be specified using a ‘repeat’factor inside round brackets

• PIC 9(6) is equivalent to PICTURE 999999
• PIC 9(6)V99 is equivalent to PIC 999999V99
• PICTURE X(10) is equivalent to PIC XXXXXXXXXX
• PIC S9(4)V9(4) is equivalent to PIC S9999V9999
• PIC 9(18) is equivalent to PIC 999999999999999999