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Continuation lines in COBOL
If you want to continue a literal such that the continued lines and the continuation lines are part of one literal:
o Code a hyphen in the indicator area of each continuation line.
o Code the literal value using all columns of each continued line, up to and including column 72. (Do not terminate the continued lines with a single quotation mark followed by a space.)
o Code a quotation mark before the first character of the literal on each continuation line.
o Terminate the last continuation line with a single quotation mark followed by a space.
In the following examples, the number and size of literals created are indicated below the example:
¦…+.*..1….+….2….+….3….+….4….+….5….+….6….+….7..
000001 “AAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEE
– “GGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIJJJJJJJJJJKKKKKKKKKK
– “LLLLLLLLLLMMMMMMMMMM”
o Literal 000001 is interpreted as one alphanumeric literal that is 120 bytes long. Each character between the starting quotation mark and up to and including column 72 of continued lines is counted as part of the literal.
¦…+.*..1….+….2….+….3….+….4….+….5….+….6….+….7..
000003 N”AAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEE
– “GGGGGGGGGG”
o Literal 000003 is interpreted as one national literal that is 60 national character positions in length (120 bytes). Each character between the starting quotation mark and the ending quotation mark on the continued line is counted as part of the literal. Although single-byte characters are entered, the value of the literals is stored as national characters.
¦…+.*..1….+….2….+….3….+….4….+….5….+….6….+….7..
000005 “AAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEE
– “GGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIJJJJJJJJJJKKKKKKKKKK
– “LLLLLLLLLLMMMMMMMMMM”
o Literal 000005 is interpreted as one literal that is 140 bytes long. The blanks at the end of each continued line are counted as part of the literal because the continued lines do not end with a quotation mark.
¦…+.*..1….+….2….+….3….+….4….+….5….+….6….+….7..
000010 “AAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEE”
– “GGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIJJJJJJJJJJKKKKKKKKKK”
– “LLLLLLLLLLMMMMMMMMMM”
o Literal 000010 is interpreted as three separate literals that have lengths of 50, 50, and 20, respectively. The quotation mark with the following space terminates the continued line. Only the characters within the quotation marks are counted as part of the literals.
Literal 000010 is not valid as a VALUE clause literal for non-level-88 data items.
To code a continued literal where the length of each continued part of the literal is less than the length of Area B, adjust the starting column such that the last character of the continued part is in column 72.
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