COBOL Word

• A COBOL word can be made using the following characters:-
  1. 0 – 9
  2. A – Z (a – z)
  3. – (Hyphen)
• Created word must be adhered to the following rules:-
  1. A word cannot begin or end with hyphen
  2. A word can consist of maximum 30 characters
  3. At least one character must be letter. Some compilers also make it mandatory to specify first character as letter
  4. Except hyphen(-) no special characters are allowed
• Examples:-

  Valid words		Invalid words and reason
  EMP-NAME		-NAME (Invalid since it starts with Hyphen)
  NEW-TIME		EMP LOCATION (Invalid as it contains space between EMP and Location)
  EMP-DATE30		8-9-10 (Invalid as no letter)

• There are two types of words in COBOL :- User-defined words or Reserved words
• The reserved words also called as pre-defined words. It used in COBOL statements and entries for specific requirements
• Some reserved words are: - ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, DIVIDE, ACCEPT, IF, EVALUATE, PERFORM etc.
• A complete list of reserved words can be referred in manual supplied with the compiler