Technical data

2
Database Programming Elements of HP
COBOL
In your database programming project you will need familiarity with:
• Database-related user-defined words
• Database-related reserved words
2.1 Database-Related User-Defined Words
A user-defined word is a COBOL word that you must supply to satisfy the format
of a clause or statement. This word consists of characters selected from the set
A to Z, 0 to 9, the currency sign ( $ ), underline ( _ ), and hyphen ( - ). Throughout
this manual, and except where specific rules apply, the hyphen ( - ) and the
underline ( _ ) are treated as the same character in a user-defined word. The
underline ( _ ), however, can begin or end a user-defined word, and the hyphen
( - ) cannot. By convention, names containing a currency sign ( $ ) are reserved for
Hewlett-Packard.
Within a given source program, but excluding any contained program, each
database-related user-defined word belongs to one of the following disjoint sets:
Keeplist-names
Realm-names
Schema-names
Set-names
Sub-schema-names
Record-names
Data-item-names
Each user-defined database-related word in a program can belong to only one of
these sets. User-defined words in each set must be unique, except as described
in the rules for uniqueness of reference. (Refer to the section on Uniqueness of
Reference in the Procedure Division chapter of the HP COBOL Reference Manual.
The same chapter defines user-defined names.)
Table 2–1 provides brief descriptions of the COBOL database-related user-defined
words.
Database Programming Elements of HP COBOL 2–1