Report Writer Verbs: Overview

The three main report writer verbs INITIATE, GENERATE, and TERMINATE may be used in the same way as any other COBOL verb and may be used anywhere in the program except in a USE BEFORE REPORTING Declarative SECTION. Of the remaining procedural statements, the USE BEFORE REPORTING directive enables you to write a section of code in the DECLARATIVES portion that is to be performed automatically just before the specified report group is output, and the Report Writer SET statements make it possible to place report groups irregularly on the page.

Sequence of Operations

For a single report using a simple file as input, the normal sequence of operations is as follows:

with the following basic plan for the PROCEDURE DIVISION:

Keyword Table

The following table lists the PROCEDURE DIVISION elements associated with COBOL-IT Report Writer with a summary of their purposes. The third and fourth columns tell you whether or not the item is part of the current standard (ANS 85) COBOL and, if so, whether COBOL-IT Report Writer extends the facilities.

Keyword	Purpose	OS/VS, DOS/VS, COBOL?	Extensions to OS/VS and DOS/VS COBOL
Initiate	Prepares report for processing	Yes	INITIATE...UPON file-name Report may be global
Generate	Handles main report processing	Yes	Improved order of totalling Page-fit and DECLARATIVES if NOOSVS option used Report may be global
Terminate	Concludes all processing for report	Yes	Report may be global
Use before Reporting	Invokes SECTION in DECLARATIVES when named report group is printed	Yes	May specify Detail group May be global
Suppress Printing	Prevents data being printed for a report group	No
Move 1 To Print-Switch	Alternative to Suppress Printing	Yes
Set Page/Line/Column	Controls Page Buffer operations	No