COBOL SEARCH: How to Use IF Logic Explained

In COBOL, we call an internal table as Array. This post explains how to use an IF condition in the Search statement. Here are the differences between SEARCH and SEARCH ALL.

In WHEN condition, you can give =, > and <.

COBOL Search Logic — COBOL SEARCH IF Condition

TIP: SEARCH in COBOL is serial search. So sorting of internal table is not required

You can use IF condition to filter input fields along with SEARCH. The below sample code shows how to give IF condition:

SET IX TO 1.
SEARCH TABLE-ENTRY
AT END
   MOVE 1 TO ORG-SUB
   WHEN ORD-RECIPIENT = TABLE-CODE (IX)
        SET ORG-SUB        TO IX.
        MOVE ORD_CITY (IX) TO WS_CITY
        IF WS_CITY = '840'
           MOVE 'USA'      TO INP_REC (1:3)
        END-IF
END-SEARCH