The BINARY, COMPUTATIONAL and COMPUTATIONAL-5 phrases
Syntax Rules
These phrases specify binary data items.
The PICTURE clause of a binary data item must contain only 9s, the operational sign S, the assumed decimal point V, and one or more Ps (see the topic The PICTURE Clause).
The data items are stored in a halfword, fullword, or doubleword, and are aligned only if the SYNCHRONIZED clause is specified.
If a data item described with USAGE IS BINARY is used as a receiving data item, a check is made to determine whether the value to be transferred to this data item exceeds the maximum possible value indicated by the PICTURE character-string. If this is the case, the value is made to conform by truncation. If a receiving data item is described with USAGE IS COMPUTATIONAL or COMPUTATIONAL- 5, this check and any subsequent truncation which may be required is not performed.
General Rules
The storage requirements for binary items vary depending on the number of decimal digits specified in the PICTURE clause, as follows:
Decimal digits in the PICTURE clause
Bytes required in computer storage
Alignment
1-4 5-9 10-18
2 4 8
halfword fullword fullword
The leftmost bit of a binary data item is the operational sign. The remaining bits represent the value.
