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Functions, Methods - in COBOL and Java

Functions in Managed COBOL

method-id TestFunc.
procedure division using by value x as binary-long, 
                            by reference y as binary-long, 
                            output z as binary-long.
   add 1 to x, y
   move 5 to z
end method.
 
01 a binary-long value 1.
01 b binary-long value 1.
01 c binary-long.  *> c doesn't need initializing
 
    invoke self::TestFunc(value a reference b output c)
*> Or 
    invoke self::TestFunc(a b c)
    display a space b space c
 
*> sum is an intrinsic function in COBOL
01 total binary-long.
    set total to function sum(4 3 2 1) *> returns 10
 
*> To create a non intrinsic variable argument list function:
method-id MySum.
local-storage section.
01 i binary-long.
procedure division using params nums as binary-long occurs any
                   returning mysum as binary-long.
    perform varying i through nums
        add i to mysum
    end-perform
end method.
 
*> then to call it:
method-id main.
local-storage section.
01 i binary-long.
procedure division 
    set i to self::MySum(1 2 3 4)
    display i
end method.
 
*> COBOL doesn't support optional arguments/parameters.
*> Just create two different versions of the same function.  
method-id SayHello.
   procedure division using by value nam as string, prefix as string.
   display "Greetings, " prefix space nam
end method SayHello.
 
method-id SayHello.
   procedure division using by value nam as string.
   invoke self::SayHello(nam "")
end method.

Functions in Java

Portions of these examples were produced by Dr. Frank McCown, Harding University Computer Science Dept, and are licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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