CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cobolmainframe
Doug Hauf
Doug Hauf

Reputation: 3213

Need to remove leading spaces from a COBOL pic clause?

I need to be able to remove all leading spaces from a String in Cobol PIC x(80)

Code:

      UNSTRING ADDRESS DELIMITED BY SPACES INTO
 -             S-SP, ADDRESS              
 -    END-UNSTRING.

Then I should be able to write the string ADDRESS to a file without any leading spaces.

Error code:

775 IGYPS0088-S The "UNSTRING" statement was invalid. Expected "INTO", but found "INTOWS-SPACES". The statement was discarded.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 3415

Answers (1)

Bill Woodger
Bill Woodger

Reputation: 13076

You have specified "continuations", minus-signs/dashes in column 7 of your source.

Continuations are very, very, rarely required. They are only required for continuing a literal.

Remove the "-"s from column 7.

I don't think your code will do what you think, but if you have trouble with that, please ask a new question.

When a literal is continued, the closing quote is not included on the lined being continued.

   "ABCDE<and then column 72 arrives
-  "FGHIJ"

This literal will be "ABCDEFGHIJ" when used.

If you use the continuation on a line of code, the text will be concatenated without any intervening space, hence your error message.

Upvotes: 3

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