1.What do you know about COBOL?
COBOL stands for Common Business Oriented Language. The US Department of Defense, in a conference, formed CODASYL (Conference on Data Systems Language) to develop a language for meeting business data processing needs which is now known as COBOL.
2.List some features of COBOL.
COBOL is a standard language that can be compiled and executed on various machines. It is ideally suited for business-oriented applications as it can handle huge volumes of data. It provides numerous bedugging and testing tools. COBOL is a structured language; it has different divisions, so it is easy to debug.
3.Name the divisions in a COBOL program.
Identification Division, Environment Division, Data Division, and Procedure Division.
4.What are the different data types available in COBOL?
Alpha-numeric (X), Alphabetic (A), and Numeric (9).
5.What is ‘IS NUMERIC’ clause?
IS NUMERIC clause is used to check if any item is numeric or not. It returns TRUE when the item against which it is used contains only numbers(0 to 9). The item can be positive or negative.
6.What are 66 and 88 level used for?
Level 66 is used for RENAMES clause and Level 88 is used for condition names.
7.What is the difference between subscript and index?
Subscript is the occurrence in an array. Index is the displacement from the beginning of an array.
8.What is the difference between SEARCH and SEARCH ALL?
SEARCH is a serial search, whereas SEARCH ALL is a binary search. A table must be in sorted order before using SEARCH ALL.
9.What is the difference between performing a SECTION and a PARAGRAPH?
Performing a SECTION will cause all the paragraphs that are a part of the section to be performed. Performing a PARAGRAPH will cause only a paragraph to be performed.
10.What is a scope terminator?
Scope terminator is used to mark the end of a verb. Example: IF and END-IF.