COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language)

1. Question: What is COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language)?

COBOL is a high-level programming language designed for business applications. It was first developed in the 1950s and is often associated with large, complex business processing tasks, such as payroll and transaction processing systems.

What are some key features of the COBOL language?

Some key features of COBOL include its English-like syntax, fixed format, extensive debugging and testing features, and its ability to handle enormous volumes of data.

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2. Question: How is the syntax of COBOL different from other programming languages?

COBOL's syntax is English-like, which makes it easier to understand and use by non-programmers. Besides, COBOL uses a fixed format, where statements and inputs must be located at certain locations within each line.

Can you give an example of COBOL's syntax?

Sure, here is a simple example in COBOL: "IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. HELLO. PROCEDURE DIVISION. DISPLAY 'Hello, World!'. STOP RUN.". This program will display "Hello, World!" when executed.

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10. Question: What is File Handling in COBOL?

File handling in COBOL refers to the variety of operations which can be performed on a file, such as opening it, closing it, reading from it, writing to it, or deleting it, using specific COBOL statements.

Can you provide examples of these file handling commands in a COBOL program?

Absolutely, to read a file, one would use the READ filename statement. To write, the WRITE record-name statement would be used. To open and close a file, OPEN and CLOSE commands would be used, respectively.

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