EXHIBIT Statement

The EXHIBIT statement causes an (optionally conditional) display of the literals, and/or variables (optionally preceded by the variable name) specified in the statement. This statement is only supported when a program is compiled in IBM OSVS compatibility mode (-Cv or -Cv=OSVS).

General Format

EXHIBIT [NAMED] [CHANGED] {literal | variable} ...

General Rules

  1. If neither NAMED nor CHANGED is used, each literal and variable value is displayed.
  2. If only NAMED is used, each literal is displayed, and each variable is displayed. Variables are preceded by variable-name= (where variable-name is replaced with the name of the variable in the EXHIBIT statement).
  3. If only CHANGED is used, each literal is displayed, and each variable is displayed if its value is different from the last time this EXHIBIT verb was executed.
  4. If both NAMED and CHANGED are used, each literal is displayed, and each variable is displayed if its value is different from the last time this EXHIBIT verb was executed. In addition, each variable is preceded by variable-name= (where variable-name is replaced with the name of the variable in the EXHIBIT statement).
  5. As a compatibility issue, its recommended that you modify your source code to use actual DISPLAY statements, and that you not add new EXHIBIT statements to your COBOL program.