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*** PICTURE CLAUSE ***
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| The PICTURE clause is an optional clause which can be specified as part
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| of a data description entry. It specifies the general characteristics
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| and editing requirements for an elementary data item.
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| The PICTURE clause is formatted as shown below:
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PICTURE/PIC {IS} character-string
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| The PICTURE clause must be specified for every elementary item other
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| than an index item and the subject of a RENAMES clause. It may not be
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| specified for a group item.
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| The PICTURE character-string is made up of certain COBOL characters
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| used as symbols. Up to 30 of these symbols may be used within a single
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| PICTURE character-string. The symbols actually used within a given
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| PICTURE character-string determine the category of the elementary data
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| item being described.
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| A list of all the PICTURE clause symbols and their meanings is shown
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| below:
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SYMBOL
MEANING
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A
A character position that can contain only an alphabetic
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character (A-Z) or a space.
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B
A character position into which the space character is
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inserted. For an DBCS item (i.e., as an IBM extension),
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each B represents 2 character positions into which a
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DBCS space is inserted.
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E
Provided as an IBM extension to mark the start of the
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exponent in an external floating-point item. Occupies 1
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byte of storage.
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G
Provided as an IBM extension to specify a Double Byte
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Character Set character position, occupying 2 bytes of
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storage. Cannot be specified for a non-DBCS item.
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P
An assumed decimal scaling position. It is used to
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specify the location of an assumed decimal point when
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the point is not within the number that appears in the
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data item.
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S
Indicates the presence of an operational sign. (An
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operational sign indicates whether or not an item is
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negative or positive.) It must appear as the leftmost
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character in the PICTURE string (but this does not
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necessarily indicate the position of the sign within the
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data item). The symbol S is not counted in determining
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the size of the item (unless an associated SIGN clause
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includes the SEPERATE CHARACTER phrase).
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V
Indicates the location of an assumed decimal point. It
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does not represent a character position and is not
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counted in the size of the item. If not specified, the
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assumed decimal point is considered to be to the right
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of the rightmost symbol in the string.
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X
A character position that may contain any character.
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Z
A leading numeric character position which is replaced
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by a space when that position contains a zero.
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9
A leading character position that contains a numeral.
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0
A character position into which the numeral zero is
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inserted.
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/
A character position into which the slash character is
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inserted.
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,
A character position into which a comma is inserted.
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.
A character position into which a period is inserted.
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It also represents the decimal point for alignment
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purposes.
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+
The character position (or positions) into which the
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editing sign control character is to be placed. Only
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CR
one of these 4 symbols can be used in a given PICTURE
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DB
character-string. Each character used in the symbol is
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counted in determining the size of the data item (i.e.,
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CR and DB each count as 2 bytes).
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*
A leading numeric character position into which an
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asterisk is placed when that position contains a zero.
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$
A character position into which a currency symbol is
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placed.
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| The symbols shown below may appear more than once in a given PICTURE
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| character-string:
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A B G P X Z 9 0 / , + - * $
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| If any of these symbols appears in a PICTURE character-string
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| immediately followed by an unsigned integer enclosed in parentheses,
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| then that integer specifies the number of consecutive occurances of the
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| symbol within that PICTURE character-string.
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| As an example, all of the PICTURE clauses shown below are equivalent:
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PICTURE S99999V99
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PICTURE S9(5)V9(2)
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PICTURE S9(5)V99
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PICTURE S99999V9(2)
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PICTURE S9(05)V9(02)
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| For more details on the PICTURE clause, see DATA CLASSES, DATA
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| CATEGORIES, and PICTURE CLAUSE EDITING.
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