BINARY XFD directive

The BINARY XFD directive is used to specify that the data in the field could be alphanumeric data of any classification. Absolutely any data is allowed.

The BINARY XFD directive cannot be used in combination with the VAR_LENGTH XFD directive.

The method of storing fields declared as binary is database-specific. For example, Oracle uses the data type raw for the field.

Syntax

$XFD BINARY

Example

You might use this XFD directive when you need to store a key that contains LOW-VALUES; COBOL allows a numeric field to contain LOW or HIGH values, but these are invalid for a numeric field in the RDBMS:

 01  code-record.
     03  code-key.
         05  code-indic          pic x.
$XFD BINARY
         05  code-num            pic 9(5).
         05  code-suffix         pic x(3).
             .
             .
             .
 move low-values to code-num.