General Rules

  1. When you use the identifier-1 form of the CALL statement, the value of identifier-1 determines which subprogram is called. When the program is executed, an attempt is made to load the subprogram. If the load fails, an exception condition occurs.
  2. Identifier-2 must be described in the File, Working-Storage, or Linkage section of your program. When this value is passed to another program, it is passed by reference.
  3. If identifier-2 names a file, the called program must not be a COBOL program.
  4. \identifier-2\ and \literal-2\ indicate that the literal or data item enclosed in backslashes is to be passed by value to the called program or intrinsic. This may be used only when the called program is not a COBOL program. If an identifier is used in this way, it must represent a numeric data item of not more than 18 digits.
  5. Identifier-n is the name of a binary data item in the calling program. It is used in calls to non-COBOL programs and in calls to COBOL programs that return a value in the RETURN-CODE special register. Identifier-n cannot be a function-identifier (i.e., it cannot reference an intrinsic function).