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About usModule 15 : INTRINSIC functions
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Intrinsic functions
- Intrinsic functions are built-in functions provided by COBOL.
- Intrinsic functions return values on passing arguments to them. COBOL Intrinsic functions are made up of a specific algorithm which works on arguments passed to it and returns the calculated/modified value
- For example, we have five variables containing some value and we want to identify the maximum value, in such case, instead of writing algorithm in our program, we can directly use intrinsic function “MAX”
Example:-MOVE FUNCTION MAX (10, 20, 30, 40, 50) TO MAX-NUM.Above statement will move value 50 to MAX-NUM, as it is maximum value
- Using of intrinsic function in nested manner is allowed i.e. you can use a function such that it can have an argument as other function that has another set of arguments.
- General format of intrinsic function is :-
FUNCTION function-name [({argument}… )] [reference-modifier]
- Where,
- function-name is name of intrinsic function (example :- MAX, LENGTH etc..)
- argument is an identifier, a literal or an arithmetic expression. Multiple arguments can be passed by separating it with comma. Argument’s data type and class must comply with legal constraints of the function.
- reference-modifier can be specified only for alphanumeric functions
- Below are list of all function by its category:-
- Based on type of value function returns, there are three types of functions:-
- Alphanumeric :- Function which returns string value containing one or more character
- Numeric :- Function which returns numeric value which may have non-zero digit to the right of decimal point
- Integer function:- Function which returns numeric value which cannot have any non-zero digit to the right of decimal point
| CATEGORY | FUNCTION |
|---|---|
| String Manipulation | LOWER-CASE, UPPER-CASE, REVERSE, NUMVAL, NUMVAL-C |
| Relational | MAX, MIN, ORD-MAX, ORD-MIN |
| Date and Time | CURRENT-DATE, DATE-OF-INTEGER, DATE-TO-YYYYMMDD DAY-TO-YYYYDDD, DAY-OF-INTEGER, INTEGER-OF-DATE, INTEGER-OF-DAY, TEST-DATE-YYYYMMDD, TEST-DAY-YYYYDDD WHEN-COMPILED, YEAR-TO-YYYY |
| Statistics | ANNUITY, MEAN, MEDIAN, MIDRANGE, PRESENT-VALUE, RANGE, STANDARD-DEVIATION, VARIANCE |
| Scientific/Mathematics | ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, COS, FACTORIAL, LOG, LOG10, MOD, REM, SIN, SQRT, SUM, TAN |
| Other | ARGCOUNT (OpenVMS), CHAR, INTEGER, INTEGER-PART, LENGTH, ORD, RANDOM |
Important INTRINSIC functions explanation:-
| Function | Explanation |
|---|---|
| LOWER-CASE | Purpose:- Returns string value converted to lowercase Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 alphabetic or 1 alphanumeric Returned value type: Alphanumeric Example :- MOVE FUNCTION LOWER-CASE (SOURCE-STR) TO DEST-STR. If SOURCE-STR contains ‘MAIFRAME’, then ‘mainframe’ will be returned by function and hence that value will be moved to DEST-STR |
| UPPER-CASE | Purpose:- Returns string value converted to uppercase Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 alphabetic or 1 alphanumeric Returned value type: Alphanumeric Example :- MOVE FUNCTION UPPER-CASE (SOURCE-STR) TO DEST-STR. If SOURCE-STR contains ‘mainframe’, then ‘MAINFRAME’ will be returned by function and hence that value will be moved to DEST-STR |
| REVERSE | Purpose:- Returns string value in reverse order Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 alphabetic or 1 alphanumeric Returned value type: Alphanumeric Example :- MOVE FUNCTION REVERSE (SOURCE-STR) TO DEST-STR. If SOURCE-STR contains ‘ABCD’, then ‘DCBA’ will be returned by function and hence that value will be moved to DEST-STR |
| NUMVAL | Purpose:- Returns the numeric value represented by the string specified by the argument. Leading and trailing spaces are not considered. This function is used to convert an alphanumeric field to numeric. Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 alphanumeric Returned value type: Numeric Example :- COMPUTE DEST-TOT = FUNCTION NUMVAL ("4123"). The value returned and stored in DEST-TOT (a numeric data item) is 4123. |
| NUMVAL-C | Purpose:- Returns the numeric value represented by the string specified by the first argument. Any currency sign found in the string and any commas preceding the decimal point are not considered in determining the result. Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 or 2 alphanumeric Returned value type: Numeric Example :- COMPUTE DEST-TOT = FUNCTION NUMVAL-C ("$4,500.00", "$"). The value returned and stored in DEST-TOT (a numeric data item) is 4500. |
|
MAX |
Purpose:- Returns the content of argument that contains maximum value Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 or more alphabetic and/or alphanumeric, or 1 or more integer and/or numeric Returned value type: Depends on arguments Example :- MOVE FUNCTION MAX ("X", "Z", "Y") TO MAX-VALUE-CHAR. Above statement will move ”Z” to MAX-VALUE-CHAR MOVE FUNCTION MAX (10, 30, 20) TO MAX-VALUE-NUM. Above statement will move 30 to MAX-VALUE-NUM |
|
MIN |
Purpose:- Returns the content of argument that contains minimum value Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 or more alphabetic and/or alphanumeric, or 1 or more integer and/or numeric Returned value type: Alphanumeric Example :- MOVE FUNCTION MIN ("X", "Y", "Z") TO MIN-VALUE-CHAR. Above statement will move ”X” to MIN-VALUE-CHAR MOVE FUNCTION MIN (10, 30, 20) TO MIN-VALUE-NUM. Above statement will move 10 to MIN-VALUE-NUM |
|
ORD-MAX |
Purpose:- Returns position(ordinal number) of argument that contains maximum value Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 or more alphabetic, or 1 or more numeric, or 1 or more alphanumeric Returned value type: Integer Example :- MOVE FUNCTION ORD-MAX (10, 30, 20) TO MAX-VALUE-POSITION. Above statement will move ‘2’ to MAX-VALUE-POSITION as 2nd argument holds the maximum value among three arguments |
|
ORD-MIN |
Purpose:- Returns position(ordinal number) of argument that contains minimum value Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 or more alphabetic, or 1 or more numeric, or 1 or more alphanumeric Returned value type: Integer Example :- MOVE FUNCTION ORD-MIN (10, 30, 20) TO MIN-VALUE-POSITION. Above statement will move ‘1’ to MIN-VALUE-POSITION as 1st argument holds the minimum value among three arguments |
|
CURRENT-DATE |
Purpose:- Returns current date in form of 21 chars alphanumeric value (YYYYMMDDHHMMSSnnnnnn) Number and Type of arguments passed: None Returned value type: Alphanumeric Example :- MOVE FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE TO WS-TODAY-DATE. Above statement will move ”201806120330314500000” to WS-TODAY-DATE if job is run on Date ‘2018-June-12’ @ time ’03:30:31’. ‘45’ indicates, the hundredths of seconds, 45 after 03:30. Last 6 digits always have value zero it is reserved for future use. |
|
DATE-OF-INTEGER |
Purpose:- Returns date in format ‘YYYYMMDD’ on passing argument in form of a positive integer which represents a number of days succeeding 31-Dec-1600. Valid range of integer 1 to 3,067,671, which corresponds to dates ranging from January 1, 1601 through December 31, 9999. Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 integer Returned value type: Integer Example :- COMPUTE FINAL-DT = FUNCTION DATE-OF-INTEGER (11). Above statement will move ‘16010111’ to FINAL-DT which represents 11-Jan-1601 |
|
MEAN |
Purpose:- Returns arithmetic mean(average) of arguments Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 or more numeric Returned value type: Numeric Example :- COMPUTE AVERAGE-VALUE = FUNCTION MEAN (5, 10, 15). Above statement will move ‘10’ to AVERAGE-VALUE which was calculated by MEAN function as ((5+10+15)/3 =10) |
|
FACTORIAL |
Purpose:- Returns an integer that is the factorial of the argument specified Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 integer, int Returned value type: Integer Example :- COMPUTE FACTORIAL-VALUE = FUNCTION FACTORIAL (5). Above statement will move ‘120’ to FACTORIAL-VALUE which was calculated by FACTORIAL function as (5! = 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120) |
|
SUM |
Purpose:- returns a value that is the sum of the arguments. Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 or more integer or 1 or more numeric Returned value type: Integer or numeric depending on arguments Example :- COMPUTE TOTAL-VALUE = FUNCTION SUM (5,15,10). Above statement will move ‘30’ to TOTAL-VALUE which was calculated by SUM function as (5+15+10 =30) |
|
LENGTH |
Purpose:- Returns an integer equal to the length of the argument in bytes. Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 alphabetic or numeric or alphanumeric data item, or 1 nonnumeric literal Returned value type: Integer Example :- COMPUTE LENGTH-VALUE = FUNCTION LENGTH ("S. V. PATEL"). Above statement will move ‘11’ to LENGTH-VALUE which was calculated by LENGTH function as number of character in string “S. V. PATEL” is 11. |
|
RANDOM |
Purpose:- Returns a numeric value that is a pseudo-random number. Number and Type of arguments passed: 1 integer or none Returned value type: Numeric Example :- COMPUTE RAN-VALUE = FUNCTION RANDOM. After execution above statement, RAN-VALUE will have some random number generated by function RANDOM |