RE: How to do RPG-type I/O in Cobol

Hi Dan,

You should be able to track down a COBOL reference manual at the InfoCenter.
Check out http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/DOCNUM/SC09-1813-00

I know enough RPG to be dangerous (?!) so bear with me.

The PCPESTCCP-READ paragraph is a random read (similar to RPG's CHAIN). I'm
assuming that the file is defined as ACCESS DYNAMIC in the FILE-CONTROL
section. ACCESS DYNAMIC allows you to do both sequential and random
processing against a file.

The PCPESTCCP-READ-NEXT paragraph is a sequential read (similar to RPG's
READE). If I read the RPG manual correctly, READE allows you to specify a
search argument that controls if READE returns a record to you or not.
COBOL's READ NEXT is a little different in that it will return the next
record regardless of the key (unless you hit end of file). You would then
need to check the record to see if met your criteria.

The PCPESTCCP-START-NOTLESS paragraph positions the file at the first record
where the key is not less (i.e. >=) the specified value. This matches up
with RPG's SETLL.

Hope this helps! Holler if you need more info.

Richard Casey