Beginning COBOL for Programmers is a comprehensive, sophisticated tutorial and modularskills reference on the COBOL programming language for established programmers. Thisbook is for you if you are a developer who would like to-or must-add COBOL to yourrepertoire. Perhaps you recognize the opportunities presented by the current COBOL skillscrisis, or are working in a mission critical enterprise which retains legacy COBOL applications.Whatever your situation, Beginning COBOL for Programmers meets your needs as anestablished programmer moving to COBOL.Beginning COBOL for Programmers includes comprehensive coverage of ANS 85 COBOLfeatures and techniques, including control structures, condition names, sequential and directaccess files, data redefinition, string handling, decimal arithmetic, subprograms, and thereport writer. The final chapter includes a substantial introduction to object-oriented COBOL.Benefiting from over one hundred example programs, you'll receive an extensive introduction to the core and advanced features of the COBOL language and will learn to applythese through comprehensive and varied exercises. If you've inherited some legacy COBOL,you'll be able to grasp the COBOL idioms, understand the constructs, and recognize what'shappening in the code you're working with.Today's enterprise application developers will find that COBOL skills open new-or old-doors, and this extensive COBOL reference is the book to help you acquire and develop yourCOBOL skills.What youll learnThe basics of COBOL and its control structuresHow to declare and manipulate data, including tabular dataHow to handle sequential, indexed, and relative filesHow to SORT data and use Input and Output proceduresHow to SEARCH tabular dataHow to use contained and external subprograms to create modular programsHow to use the COBOL Report WriterHow to write ISO 2002 object-oriented COBOL programsWho this book is for This book is for established programmers looking for a COBOL tutorial and modular skills reference in one handy book. Whether you have inherited some legacy COBOL and need to maintain it, or you have a fresh COBOL project in front of you, the tutorial and skills reference will help you succeed in COBOL. Table of Contents1. Introduction to COBOL2. COBOL Foundation3. Data Declaration In COBOL4.Procedure Division Basics5. Control Structures: Selection6. Control Structures: Iteration7. Introduction to Sequential Files8. Advanced Sequential Files9. Edited Pictures10. Processing Sequential Files11. Creating Tabular Data12. Advanced Data Declaration13. Searching Tabular Data14. Sorting and Merging15. String Manipulation16. Creating Large Systems17. Direct Access Files18. The COBOL Report Writer19. OO-COBOL