When you run a program which has been compiled with the NLS directive set, certain operations are carried out in accordance with the rules of the language specified in the LANG environment variable.
Other language-dependent features, such as the symbols used to denote the decimal points and the currency character, also appear in the format of the specified language. However, in languages that define the currency sign as trailing, this has no effect and the usual COBOL rules are observed.
Certain NLS definitions have characters other than the ASCII characters 0-9 defined as numerics. Such characters cannot be ACCEPTed into numeric picture strings, nor can they be used in numeric operations. Note that in all NLS operations in the COBOL environment, a numeric item must be formed only from the ASCII digits 0-9, with or without the ASCII operational signs "+" or "-". There is no means of automatically converting the NLS representation to the ASCII equivalent.
It is possible to enter European modifying characters into numeric ACCEPT fields. These are accepted as zero.
Note that the values assigned to figurative constants, for example LOW-VALUES, are not changed by using NLS features.
You can also use the Adis Flip Case Control key when using NLS characters. However, if you attempt to convert a European character to upper case using this key, the character will be replaced by spaces if it has no upper case equivalent.