Cobol interview questions

Question 61: Give some advantages of REDEFINES clause.
Answer :
1. You can REDEFINE a Variable from one PICTURE class to another PICTURE class by using the same memory location.
2. By REDEFINES we can INITIALISE the variable in WORKING-STORAGE Section itself.
3. We can REDEFINE a Single Variable into so many sub variables. (This facility is very useful in solving Y2000 Problem.)

Question 62 : What is report-item?
Answer : A Report-item Is A Field To Be Printed That Contains Edit Symbols

Question 63: Difference between next and continue clause
Answer : The difference between the next and continue verb is that in the continue verb it is used for a situation where there in no EOF condition that is the records are to be accessed again and again in an file, whereas in the next verb the indexed file is accessed sequentially, read next record command is used.

Question 64 : What is the Importance of GLOBAL clause According to new standards of COBOL
Answer : When any data name, file-name, Record-name, condition name or Index defined in an Including Piugiam can be icfcienccd by a diicclly ui indiicclly in an included piugiani, Piuvidcd the said name has been declared to be a global name by GLOBAL Format of Global Clause isOl data-1 pic 9(5) IS GLOBAL.

Question 65: What is the Purpose of POINTER Phrase in STRING command
Answer : The Purpose of POINTER phrase is to specify the leftmost position within receiving field where the first transferred character will be stored

Question 66 : What are the steps you go through while creating a COBOL program executable?
Answer : DB2 precompiler (if embedded SQL used), CICS translator (if CICS pgm), Cobol compiler. Link editor. If DB2 program, create plan by binding the DBRMs.

Question 67: How is sign stored in a comp-3 field?
Answer : It is stored in the last nibble. For example if your number is +100, it stores hex 0C in the last byte, hex 1C if your number is 101, hex 2C if your number is 102, hex ID if the number is -101, hex 2D if the number is -102 etc…

Question 68 : How is sign stored in a COMP field ?
Answer : In the most significant bit. Bit is ON if -ve, OFF if +ve.

Question 69 : What is the difference between COMP & COMP-3 ?
Answer : COMP is a binary storage format while COMP-3 is packed decimal format.

Question 70: What is COMP-1? COMP-2?
Answer : COMP-1 – Single precision floating point. Uses 4 bytes.
COMP-2 – Double precision floating point. Uses 8 bytes.

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