Issue while populating array in COBOL

Question

I am getting very strange scenario. I have one array defined in my COBOL pgm.

05  A-TABLE.                                   
    10  A-TABLE-LIST OCCURS 10 TIMES INDEXED BY A-IDX. 

        15  FILLER              PIC X(7) VALUE '<TEST>'. 
        15  A-LIST-VALUE        PIC X(30).                
        15  FILLER              PIC X(8) VALUE '</TEST>'.

I am setting A-IDX=1 and moving 'XYZ' to A-LIST-VALUE(A-IDX). While displaying A-TABLE, it is showing as XYZ------------------------------ and all spaces... :( I am not getting what is the issue here? Can anyone help me to resolve this?

Regards, Saisha.

Answer 1

You cannot set values for a table that way. One way to set values in a table is to use a REDEFINES and a separate data area.

05  A-TABLE-X.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.
    10  FILLER PIC X(45)
        VALUE '<TEST>                              </TEST>'.

05  A-TABLE REDEFINES A-TABLE-X.     
    10  A-TABLE-LIST OCCURS 10 TIMES INDEXED BY A-IDX. 

        15  FILLER              PIC X(7). 
        15  A-LIST-VALUE        PIC X(30).                
        15  FILLER              PIC X(8).

That is pretty cumbersome. Another method is to MOVE the data in at runtime in an initialisation paragraph.

05  A-TABLE REDEFINES A-TABLE-X.     
    10  A-TABLE-LIST OCCURS 10 TIMES INDEXED BY A-IDX. 

        15  A-LIST-A            PIC X(7). 
        15  A-LIST-VALUE        PIC X(30).                
        15  A-LIST-B            PIC X(8).

PERFORM VARYING A-IDX FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL A-IDX > 1
  MOVE '<TEST> TO A-LIST-A(A-IDX)
  MOVE SPACES TO A-LIST-VALUE(A-IDX)
  MOVE '</TEST> TO A-LIST-B(A-IDX)
END-PERFORM

I didn't try compiling any of these, this is just freehand.

As a side note, if you are using Enterprise COBOL version 3.2 or higher and you are trying to create XML in COBOL, there exists an XML GENERATE statement.