Categories of COBOL statements

• Imperative statements:-
  • Directs the program to perform specific action during execution.
  • Example: - MOVE, DISPLAY, GO TO etc.
• Conditional statements:-
  • Directs the program to decide path based on true or false value returned from examination of relational condition
  • Example: - IF, EVALUATE etc.
• Compiler-directing statements:-
  • Directs the COBOL compiler to perform specific action during compilation of COBOL program
  • Example:- COPY, USE, SKIP etc.
• Explicit scope terminator:-
  • Terminates the scope of conditional and imperative statements
  • Example:- END-IF, END-EVALUATE, END-ADD, END-MOVE etc.
• Implicit scope terminator:-
  • The period (.) is used to terminate any sentence