COBOL: Alphanumeric, Numeric, Decimal Move Statements

MOVE is COBOL reserved word. The Simple syntax for MOVE is:

MOVE {identifier-1 | literal-1} TO identifier-2 ..

Subscribe to Get blog posts to your email box.

We can move a smaller field to a bigger field
We cannot move a bigger field to a smaller field. If so, the value will be truncated.

01 var-1 pic x(10) value ‘RAMANA’
01 var-2 pix x(10).
MOVE var-1 to var-2.

Result in var-2=> ‘RAMANA’ [Remaining bytes padded with spaces in right side]

Example-1

01 var-1 pic x(10) value ‘1234’
01 var-2 pix x(10).
   MOVE var-1 to var-2.

Result in var-2=> ‘1234’ [Remaining bytes padded with spaces in right side]

Example-2

01 var-1 pic 9(10) value 1234
01 var-2 pix 9(10).
   MOVE var-1 to var-2.

Result in var-2=> ‘0000001234’ [Left side padded with zeros ]

01 var-1  pic 9(4)v9(2) value 1234.56
01 var-2  pix 9(4)v9(2).
   MOVE var-1 to var-2.

Result in var-2 =>123456 [Because it is assumed decimal value]

How decimal move happens

1234.56
Before point => Right to left         1<<2<<3<<4
After point ==>Left to right         5>>6

Notes on MOVE statement

Use Value clauses to initialize fields in working storage whenever that’s possible.
Use Move or Initialize statements to re-initialize fields whenever that’s necessary.
Don’t use Initialize statements to initialize large tables or record descriptions that don’t need to be initialized.