Re: [GNU-COBOL] New to COBOL

["Boris Kortiak" <BKortiak@genlyte.com>]

>>> Fred Mobach <fred@mobach.nl> 10/26/99 05:55PM >>>
Boris Kortiak wrote:

<snip>
> -BK
> All numbers in COBOL are essentially INTEGER types.  It is the internal storage method which changes.  The big problem with packed decimal is the sign.  A field defined as PIC S9, takes up a single by with the high-order nybble indicating the sign.  A field defined as PIC S999 takes up two bytes, with the high order nybble of the low-order byte indicating the sign.  In general the sign is the high order nybble of the low order byte.
>
> The current standard only allows numbers to have 18 digits: 123456789012345678 or 123456789.012345678 or .123456789012345678 or any other combination.  The sign and the decimal point don't count (at least for storage).

-FN
All numbers in COBOL are essentially INTEGER types ? NO.
I never used floating point numbers in Cobol, only in Fortran, Algol and so on. But on many systems from IBM, Siemens, Bull and so on you can use floating points in Cobol.

But aren't those implementor extensions to the COBOL standard?


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