Back to first page...

Some RM-COBOL Reserved Words

ACCEPT                  MERGE            SUM
ADD                     MESSAGE          TABLE
ADVANCING               MODE             TAPE
AFTER                   MULTIPLY         TEST
ALL                     NEGATIVE         TEXT
ALPHABET                NEXT             THAN
ALSO                    NO               THEN
ALTERNATE               NOT              THROUGH
AND                     NUMBER           THRU
ANY                     OCCURS           TIME
ARE                     OF               TO
AREA                    OFF              TOP
ASCENDING               OMITTED          TRUE
ASSIGN                  ON               TYPE
AT                      OPEN             UNIT
AUTHOR                  OR               UNTIL
BEFORE                  OTHER            UP
BLANK                   OUTPUT           USE
BLOCK                   PAGE             USING
BOTTOM                  PERFORM          VALUE
BY                      PIC              VALUES
CALL                    PICTURE          WHEN
CANCEL                  PLUS             WITH
CD                      POINTER          WRITE
CHARACTER               POSITION         ZERO
CLOSE                   POSITIVE         ZEROS
COLUMN                  PROCEDURE        ZEROES
COMMA                   PROGRAM          
COMMON                  PROGRAM-ID       
COMMUNICATION           QUOTE            
COMP                    RANDOM           
COMPUTE                 READ             
CONTAINS                RECEIVE          
CONFIGURATION           RECORD           
CONTINUE                REDEFINES        
CONTROL                 REFERENCE
COPY                    REMAINDER
COUNT                   REPLACE
DATA                    REPORT
DATE                    RESERVE
DAY                     RESET
DELETE                  RETURN
DESTINATION             REWIND
DISABLE                 REWRITE
DISPLAY                 RIGHT
DIVIDE                  RUN
DOWN                    SAME
ELSE                    SEARCH
ENABLE                  SECTION
END                     SELECT
ENVIRONMENT             SENTENCE
EQUAL                   SET
ERROR                   SIGN
EXIT                    SEQUENTIAL
EXTERNAL                SIZE
FLASE                   SORT
FILE                    SOURCE
LENGTH                  SPACE
LESS                    STANDARD
LIMIT                   START
LINE                    STOP
LOCK                    STRING
LOW-VALUE               SUBTRACT
	
Please note that this is ONLY a partial listing. The actual list is about three times longer. At first look, the new COBOL programmer thinks that these reserved words will be a headache but this is not true! The COBOL compiler will warn you with an appropriate message when you try to use any of these reserved words as variable names; and you shall change the name accordingly. DO NOT TRY TO MEMORIZE THESE RESERVED WORDS!


Back to first page...