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Q131140

COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language; ) is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural, and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. COBOL is still widely used in applications deployed on mainframe computers, such as large-scale batch and transaction processing jobs. Many large financial institutions were developing new systems in the language as late as 2006, but most programming in COBOL today is purely to maintain exis

AI overview

COBOL is an English-like programming language created specifically for business applications that remains widely used today, particularly on mainframe computers for financial and administrative systems. It matters because many critical business and government systems still rely on COBOL code, making the maintenance and updating of these programs an important ongoing concern.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Programming language.dialects: COBOL/2, DEC COBOL-10, DEC PDP-11 COBOL, DEC PDP-11 COBOL-85, DEC VAX COBOL, DOSVS COBOL, Envyr ICOBOL, Fujitsu COBOL, Hitachi COBOL2002, HP3000 COBOL/II, IBM COBOL SAA, IBM COBOL/400, IBM COBOL/II, IBM Enterprise COBOL, IBM ILE COBOL, IBM OS/VS COBOL, ICL COBOL (VME), Micro Focus ACUCOBOL-GT, Micro Focus COBOL-IT, Micro Focus RM/COBOL, Micro Focus Visual COBOL, Microsoft COBOL, Raincode COBOL, Realia COBOL, Ryan McFarland RM/COBOL, Ryan McFarland RM/COBOL-85, Tandem (NonStop) COBOL, Tandem (NonStop) SCOBOL, UNIVAC COBOL, Unisys MCP COBOL74, Unisys MCP COBOL85, X/Open COBOL, Veryant isCOBOL, Wang VS COBOL, WATBOL
Programming language.influenced by: Initial: AIMACO, COMTRAN, FACT, FLOW-MATIC COBOL 2002: C++, Eiffel, Smalltalk
Programming language.influenced: CobolScript,<!--
Programming language.access date: 23 November 2014 --> PL/B
Programming language.file_ext: .cbl, .cob, .cpy
Programming language.wikibooks: COBOL
Programming language.name: COBOL
Programming language.logo: 200px-->
Programming language.logo caption: The COBOL 60 report to CODASYL (April 1960)

Article

49 sections

Contents

History and specification
Background
COBOL 60
COBOL-61 to COBOL-65
COBOL-68
COBOL-74
COBOL-85
COBOL 2002 and object-oriented COBOL
COBOL 2014
COBOL 2023
Legacy
Y2K
Modernization efforts
Features
Syntax
Metalanguage
Code format
Identification division
Object-oriented programming
Environment division
Files
Data division
Aggregated data
Other data levels
Data types
PICTURE clause
USAGE clause
Report writer
Procedure division
Procedures
Statements
Control flow
I/O
Data manipulation
Scope termination
Self-modifying code
Hello, world
Reception
Lack of structure
Compatibility issues
Verbose syntax
Concerns about the design process
Influences on other languages
See also
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
External links

COBOL's design was started in 1959 by CODASYL and was partly based on the programming language FLOW-MATIC, designed by Grace Hopper. It was created as part of a US Department of Defense effort to create a portable programming language for data processing. It was originally seen as a stopgap, but the Defense Department promptly pressured computer manufacturers to provide it, resulting in its widespread adoption. It was standardized in 1968 and has been revised five times. Expansions include support for structured and object-oriented programming. The current standard is ISO/IEC 1989:2023.