STRUCTURE OF A COBOL PROGRAM


A COBOL program structure consists of divisions as shown in the following image :




Program Structure



A brief introduction of these divisions is given below:
  • SECTIONS : are the logical subdivision of program logic. A section is a collection of paragraphs
  • PARAGRAPHS :  are the subdivision of a section or division. It is either user-defined or a predefined name followed by a period, and consists of zero or more sentences/entries.
  • SENTENCES : are the combination of one or more statements. Sentences appear only in the Procedure division. A sentence must end with a period.
  • STATEMENTS :are meaningful COBOL statement that performs some processing.
  • CHATACTERS are the lowest in the hierarchy and cannot be divisible.




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