COBOL Programming Series

The COBOL Programming Basics course introduces the COBOL language and its basic structure. It describes the syntax and use of program logic statements in the procedure division of a COBOL program. It examines the standard loop and conditional statements, and the available arithmetic operations. It also describes the use of basic screen and printing instructions.

The COBOL Data and Datafile Definitions course explains how the COBOL programming language describes and defines data. It also shows how COBOL data definitions can be used to manipulate the way data is used. It explores display and computational formats, and the use of redefines to reference data in different ways.

The COBOL File Handling course describes how COBOL can be used to define and process several of the common file types used in system processing. It details how sequential and direct files can be defined in the environmental division of the program, and the instructions and processes used to access data sequentially and directly through an index.

The COBOL Programming - Advanced course examines the use of tables in a COBOL program, and the methodologies used for file sorting. It details the use of subprograms and the linkage section. It also shows how parameters are passed to a program.

The COBOL - IBM Enterprise COBOL 6.3 for z/OS course is designed for learners with a basic understanding of generic COBOL who need to extend its use to the z/OS environment. It describes how COBOL programs are made available through compile and bind processes and discusses coding and options specific to the z/OS environment. The use of IBM's Language Environment is presented, and a number of coding techniques used to improve the performance of COBOL running on z/OS, is also shown.

The Accessing IMS Databases from COBOL course details the structure and use of an IMS/DB database. It gives examples of the DL/I data access language and shows how to use DL/I in COBOL programs to read and update IMS data. The concept of backup and recovery, particularly in the context of batch programming runs, is also explained.