Course Overview

What this COBOL course covers, how to use it, prerequisites.

A self-contained, hands-on course covering COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) from its 1959 origins to the COBOL 2023 standard and the modern IBM Z ecosystem: coding format, program structure, the DATA DIVISION, PICTURE and USAGE clauses, arithmetic, MOVE rules, conditionals, PERFORM loops, tables and searching, string handling, intrinsic functions, sequential/relative/indexed (VSAM) files, SORT and MERGE, report writing and control breaks, subprograms, copybooks, debugging, object-oriented COBOL, JSON and XML, performance, testing, z/OS, TSO/ISPF, JCL, DB2 embedded SQL, CICS, IMS, modernization, DevOps, and complete projects. Every chapter has runnable examples (GnuCOBOL, with notes for IBM Enterprise COBOL) and exercises.

Course Map

Part I — Foundations Introduction to COBOL Where COBOL Runs Today Tools & Environment Setup Your First COBOL Program Coding Format: Fixed & Free

Program Structure: Divisions, Sections, Paragraphs, Sentences The DATA DIVISION & Level Numbers USAGE & Data Representation

VALUE, REDEFINES, RENAMES & 88-Level Condition Names DISPLAY & ACCEPT Part II — Core Language

Arithmetic Verbs: ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, DIVIDE, COMPUTE Conditionals: IF & EVALUATE Loops with PERFORM GO TO & Structured Programming Tables with OCCURS SEARCH & SEARCH ALL

String Handling: STRING, UNSTRING, INSPECT, Reference Modification Sequential & Line Sequential Files

Relative & Indexed Files (VSAM KSDS/ESDS/RRDS) Reports & Control-Break Processing Part III — Advanced Subprograms & CALL Nested & Recursive Programs Copybooks: COPY & REPLACE Debugging & Compiler Options JSON & XML: GENERATE and PARSE

Modern Standard Features (2002, 2014, 2023) Testing COBOL: COBOL Check, zUnit & Friends

Part IV — Mainframe Ecosystem & Real-World The Mainframe Environment: z/OS, TSO/ISPF, Datasets JCL: Job Control Language DB2 Embedded SQL CICS: Online Transaction Processing IMS DB/DC Overview Batch vs Online Processing

Modernization: APIs, Java Interop, Refactoring, Migration DevOps for the Mainframe

Best Practices, Coding Standards & Common Pitfalls Appendices: Cheat Sheet, Reserved Words, PICTURE Reference, File Status Codes, Standards, Resources, Study Plan