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Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 for Eclipse (Windows) > General Reference > COBOL Language Reference > Part 3. Additional Topics > Micro Focus Extensions for Double-Byte Character Support > Data Division > The USAGE Clause

The USAGE Clause

General Format

The General Format is extended by the addition of the following:


*

The General Format is extended by the addition of the following:


*

Syntax Rules

  1. The PICTURE character-string can contain only "N"s, "B"s, "/"s, and "0"s.

    Whenever a PICTURE clause contains an "N" the associated item is considered to be of class NCHAR, Japanese.

  2. The BLANK WHEN ZERO clause cannot be used with group or elementary items described as USAGE IS NCHAR or USAGE IS JAPANESE. The SYNCHRONIZED clause is ignored.

General Rules

  1. The USAGE IS NCHAR or USAGE IS JAPANESE clause indicates that the format of the data is NCHAR.
Parent topic: Data Division
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