Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 24 Hours

Hour 7Manipulating String Data

In Hour 6, “Manipulating Data,” you learned some basic methods for manipulating data. However, programming often requires more-complex data manipulation, especially when working with character strings. In this hour, you learn about manipulating character strings. The following topics are covered:

• The definition of a string

• The String statement

• Using delimiters with the String statement

• The Unstring statement

• Using delimiters with the Unstring statement

A string is a set of characters. It can be described as being all the characters in any particular field. The field, or data item, can also be referred to as a string. Working with strings is a common task in all kinds of computer programming. In your programming, ...