Subscript in COBOL Table

Subscript

  • The number of occurrences of an array element is called as subscript.
  • A separate element of a table is accessed by using the subscript.
  • It starts from 1 and to refer to the next occurrence it increases one by one.
  • The subscript value can be any positive number.
  • It is automatically created with OCCURS clause, so that it does not need any declaration in data division.

Example : Program to demonstrate subscript

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLO.

DATA DIVISION.
   WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
   01 WS-TABLE.
      05 WS-A OCCURS 3 TIMES.
         10 WS-B PIC 9(4).
         10 WS-C OCCURS 2 TIMES.
            15 WS-D PIC X(2).

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
   MOVE 'tutorialridecareerride198859' TO WS-TABLE.
   DISPLAY 'WS-TABLE  : ' WS-TABLE.
   DISPLAY 'WS-A(1)   : ' WS-A(1).
   DISPLAY 'WS-C(1,1) : ' WS-C(1,1).
   DISPLAY 'WS-C(1,2) : ' WS-C(1,2).
   DISPLAY 'WS-A(2)   : ' WS-A(2).
   DISPLAY 'WS-C(2,1) : ' WS-C(2,1).
   DISPLAY 'WS-C(2,2) : ' WS-C(2,2).
   DISPLAY 'WS-A(3)   : ' WS-A(3).
   DISPLAY 'WS-C(3,1) : ' WS-C(3,1).
   DISPLAY 'WS-C(3,2) : ' WS-C(3,2).
   
STOP RUN.


Output:
WS-TABLE  : tutorialridecareerride19
WS-A(1)   : tutorial
WS-C(1,1) : ri
WS-C(1,2) : al
WS-A(2)   : ridecare
WS-C(2,1) : ca
WS-C(2,2) : re
WS-A(3)   : erride19
WS-C(3,1) : de
WS-C(3,2) : 19
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