SUMMARY:   Suitable for the BCS Mainframe Technology professional Exams for levels 1 and 2 Developer AUDIENCE:   Application Programmers with minimal experience in COBOL who want formal training in the basic language and programming techniques PREREQUISITES:   An understanding of programming design, (e.g. Attendance of our Jackson Structured Programming course) is useful but not essential. DURATION:   5 days. Hands on. OBJECTIVES:   Each delegate will acquire a working knowledge of the basic tools of COBOL. They will gain a solid foundation in the fundamentals of COBOL coding including program structure, design, execution and debugging. The concepts of structured programming are stressed with examples and explanation. Good programming practice is encouraged throughout. The course starts with the basics and builds with hands-on assignments until the delegates are capable of complex programming logic and design. COURSE CONTENT:   Introduction to COBOL Concepts What is COBOL programming? How does it fit into the environment? Basic terms and Language structure Programming fundamentals COBOL: The Ground Rules Language areas and pre defined columns Identification division Environment division Data division Procedure division COBOL organisation Creating the First Working Program Compiling the first working program Simple Input/Output Defining records Moving data Debugging Paragraphs and Structured Programs Organising subroutines The PERFORM statement The PERFORM UNTIL statement Repetitive processing Paragraphs versus Sections COBOL 85 concepts Defining and Moving Data Working storage concepts Level numbers Groups and elementary items USAGE clause PICTURE clause Alphanumeric data Numeric data The MOVE statement Sequential File Operations The INPUT-OUTPUT section The FILE section The OPEN and CLOSE statements The READ statement The WRITE statement Programming sequential files COBOL Arithmetic Overview of Concepts COMPUTATIONAL usage Arithmetic Operations The COMPUTE statement Size errors and ROUNDING Editing Numeric Data Edited data format Implied decimal points Zero suppression Floating pound signs COBOL Logic The IF statement The ELSE option Nested IF's The NOT operator Compound IF's COBOL 85 concepts Table Processing Array concepts Defining tables The OCCURS clause The PERFORM VARYING statement Table searching Index concepts The SEARCH statement Summary COBOL future Structured Programming in COBOL WORKSHOPS: Workshops in this class are conducted in a hands-on environment. Delegates will code execute and debug a series of programs serving as an excellent example for future programming in COBOL.