Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 Update 1 for Eclipse (UNIX) > General Reference > COBOL Language Reference > Part 1. Concepts > Language Fundamentals > Procedure Division > Statements and Sentences > Categories of Statements

Categories of Statements

Category	Verbs
Arithmetic	ADD COMPUTE DIVIDE INSPECT (TALLYING) MULTIPLY SUBTRACT EXAMINE (TALLYING)
Conditional	ADD (SIZE ERROR) CALL (OVERFLOW) COMPUTE (SIZE ERROR) DELETE (INVALID KEY) DIVIDE (SIZE ERROR) GO TO (DEPENDING) IF MULTIPLY (SIZE ERROR) READ (END or INVALID KEY) RETURN (END) REWRITE (INVALID KEY) SEARCH START (INVALID KEY) STRING (OVERFLOW) UNSTRING (OVERFLOW) WRITE (INVALID KEY or END-OF-PAGE) EVALUATE ON
Data movement	ACCEPT (DATE, DAY or TIME) INSPECT (REPLACING) MOVE STRING UNSTRING EXAMINE TRANSFORM INITIALIZE INSPECT (CONVERTING) SET (TO TRUE) SET (TO FALSE) SET (ADDRESS OF) SET (POINTER) SET (object reference)
Ending	EXIT METHOD EXIT PROGRAM GOBACK STOP
Input/Output	ACCEPT (identifier) CLOSE COMMIT DELETE DISPLAY OPEN READ RECEIVE REWRITE ] ROLLBACK START STOP (literal) UNLOCK WRITE EXHIBIT SET (TO ON or TO OFF)
Inter-program	CALL CANCEL CHAIN ENTRY EXEC INVOKE SERVICE
Null operation	EXIT CONTINUE
Ordering	MERGE RELEASE RETURN SORT
Procedure branching	ALTER CALL EXIT PERFORM/EXIT PARAGRAPH/EXIT SECTION GO TO NEXT SENTENCE PERFORM
Scope delimiting	END-ACCEPT END-ADD END-CALL END-DELETE END-DISPLAY END-DIVIDE END-EVALUATE END-IF END-INVOKE END-MULTIPLY END-PERFORM END-READ END-RETURN END-REWRITE END-SEARCH END-START END-STRING END-SUBTRACT END-UNSTRING END-WRITE
COBOL system-directing	BASIS DELETE INSERT $DISPLAY $ELSE $END $IF COPY ENTER USE REPLACE ENTRY EJECT SKIP1 SKIP2 SKIP3 TITLE NOTE ++INCLUDE -INC
Table handling	SEARCH SET

IF and ON are verbs in the COBOL sense; it is recognized that they are not verbs in English.