Duplicate Paragraph-names

In Visual COBOL, if you have duplicate paragraph-names, in different sections, and then call a paragraph-name from outside its section, an error is produced unless you have explicitly referenced the paragraph-name and its section. In RM/COBOL, by just calling the paragraph-name, it assumes you are calling the next declaration of the paragraph-name found.

To ensure that references to duplicate paragraph-names are correctly resolved, you must qualify a reference to a duplicate paragraph-name by adding the section-name in which it is declared.

Example

If your source code contains the following:

      .... 
      perform para-2. 
      .... 
 sect-1 section. 
      para-1. 
      .... 
      para-2. 
      .... 
 sect-2 section. 
      para-2. 
      ....

RM/COBOL will resolve the reference to para-2 in the PERFORM statement by using the declaration of para-2 in the sect-1 SECTION. In Visual COBOL, however, you must qualify the reference to the duplicate paragraph-name in your source code by using the PERFORM para-2 OF sect-1 statement.