The USAGE Clause

General Format

The following format of the USAGE clause is supported:

Syntax Rules

1. COMP and COMPUTATIONAL are synonymous.
2. COMP-1 and COMPUTATIONAL-1 are synonymous.
3. COMP-6 and COMPUTATIONAL-6 are synonymous.

General Rules

1. The COBOL system allocates a 2-byte signed binary data item, capable of holding values in the range –32k to +32k, for each data item declared as USAGE COMP-1 in the source program, regardless of its picture string. That is, each USAGE COMP-1 data item is treated as though it had a standard COBOL picture-string of S9(4) COMP.
2. COMP-6 data items are converted to COBOL COMP format. If, as a result of this, less data space is allocated to each item than would be under the RM/COBOL system, the space is padded with null bytes (that is, bytes containing X"00")..
3. USAGE IS COMPUTATIONAL is treated the same as USAGE IS DISPLAY.