Occurs Clause Example in .NET COBOL Interoperation

In the InterfacingWithStdCOBOL.sln solution, the third pair of projects, StdCbl03*, shows a COBOL program using occurs clauses. In the same way as the StdCbl02 projects, this project uses a proxy class to manipulate the COBOL data to and from object properties, so that these properties are exposed to the C# client.

The StdCbl03 projects contain the following programs:

• StdCbl03.cbl. This uses two occurs clauses (defined in the copybook). One of these occurs clauses is as follows:

  Lines 11-16:

  01 INOUT-FIELDS.
    03 INOUT-FIELD01                PIC  9(02)       COMP.
    03 INOUT-FIELD02                PIC  X(26). 
    03 INOUT-TABLE          OCCURS 3.
      05 INOUT-TABLE-FIELD01        PIC  X(15). 
      05 INOUT-TABLE-FIELD02        PIC    S9(09)V9(5)  COMP-3.      

  We can view this occurs group as if it had three occurrences of two fields or an array of size three where each position in the array has two fields or properties. If each occurrence is an object with two properties, you can code it neatly as a .NET ArrayList.

• OOiInoutfields.cbl. This program defines a COBOL class that exposes the input/output fields as object properties. This class is instantiated by StdCbl03Client.cs and each object created is saved in an ArrayList item. This ArrayList is then passed to OOiStdCbl03.Cbl. For example:

  Lines 7-33

      *> OO COBOL class for OUT-TABLE table
   class-id. OOiOutFields.
   working-storage section.
      *> using native .NET Type and/or classes
   01 OutTableField01      type System.Double property.
   01 OutTableField02      type System.Double property.
         
   end class.

• OOiOutfields.cbl. Similar to the above program, this program defines a COBOL class that exposes the output fields as object properties for use in StdCbl03Client.cs as ArrayList items.
• OOiStdCbl03.cbl. This is the newly-written proxy COBOL program that manipulates the occurs groups, as follows:
  • Uses the arrays that are passed to and from the .NET managed client.

    Line 31 in the Working Storage section of the method ExecStdCbl03:

    01 obj-InoutFieldsItem    type OOiInoutFields

    Line 59 in the Linkage section:

    01 obj-InoutFieldsArray   Object Reference ArrayListClass.

    Line 36:

    procedure division using obj-InoutFieldsArray as type System.Collections.ArrayList
                             obj-OutFieldsArray   as type System.Collections.ArrayList.

  • For each occurrence in each ArrayList, take the object's properties and populate the original occurs group (defined in the copybook).

    Lines 47-51:

    Move 1 to Idx
    Perform varying obj-InoutFieldsItem through obj-InoutFieldsArray
    			 Set INOUT-TABLE-FIELD01(Idx) to 
                           obj-InoutFieldsItem::"InOutTableField01"
        Move obj-InoutFieldsItem::"InOutTableField02" to 
                           INOUT-TABLE-FIELD02(Idx)
    			 Add 1 to Idx	 
    	End-Perform  

    The ArrayList now contains three objects each with two properties. It contains the equivalent of three occurrences of two fields in an occurs group.

  • Call the existing COBOL module from the proxy COBOL class, passing the original data structure with its occurs group. See the program OOiStdCbl03.cbl

    Line 53:

    Call "StdCbl03"									
             using INPUT-FIELDS INOUT-FIELDS OUTPUT-FIELDS

• StdCbl03Client.cs. This is the client program, written in C#. It does the following:
  • Creates a NET ArrayList (or more precisely System.Collections.ArrayList), as follows:

    Lines 31:

    ArrayList InOutArray = new ArrayList(3);	

  • Sets the object properties of the ArrayList items, as follows:

    Lines 36-39:

    OOiInoutFields inOutFieldsItem0 = new OOiInoutFields();
    inOutFieldsItem0.InOutTableField01 = "Item #1";  
    inOutFieldsItem0.InOutTableField02 = 111.111;
    InOutArray.Add(inOutFieldsItem0);				

  • Invokes the method ExecStdCbl03 in the newly written proxy class, as follows:

    Line 55:

    objStdCbl03.ExecStdCbl03(ref InOutArray, ref OutArray );		

The result is a .NET ArrayList (or more precisely System.Collections.ArrayList) that you can pass to and from C# or any .NET managed code. You can work with it in many ways, including binding it to a DataGrid.