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Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 Update 1 for Eclipse (UNIX) > General Reference > COBOL Language Reference > Part 1. Concepts > Concepts of the COBOL Language > Class and Category of Data > Uniqueness of Reference > Program-address-identifier

Program-address-identifier

General Format


*

Syntax Rules

  1. Identifier-1 must of of category alphanumeric or national.
  2. Literal-1 must be an alphanumeric or national literal.
  3. Program-prototype-name-1 must be a program prototype specified in the Repository paragraph.
  4. This identifier format must not be specified as a receiving operand.

General Rules

  1. Program-address-identifier creates a unique data item of class pointer and category program-pointer that contains the address of a program identified by one of the following:
    1. the content of the data item referenced by identifier-1
    2. the value of literal-1
    3. program-prototype-name-1.

    If identifier-1 or literal-1 is specified, COBOL Words in the chapter Concepts of the COBOL Language describes how this value is used to identify the referenced program.

  2. The program may be written in COBOL or in another language. For a COBOL program, the address is that of the outermost program identified by the externalized program-name in its Program-ID paragraph.
  3. When program-prototype-name-1 is specified, the program-address-identifier has the characteristics of a program-pointer restricted to program-prototype-name-1.
  4. If the runtime system cannot locate the program, the value of the address-identifier is the predefined address NULL.
Parent topic: Uniqueness of Reference
Related information
COBOL Words
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