EXECPERIOD

Controls whether a period following END-EXEC is treated as part of that statement when there are separating spaces, lines or comments.
Restriction: The Integrated Preprocessor is supported for native COBOL only.

Syntax:

>>---EXECPERIOD"arg"---><

Parameters:

arg
arg must be one of:
INCLUDE
Always includes the period as part of the EXEC statement.
EXCLUDE
Always excludes the period from the EXEC statement.
SMART
Includes the period for EXECs in the DATA DIVISION. Excludes the period for EXECs in the PROCEDURE DIVISION.

Properties:

Default: EXECPERIOD"SMART"

Comments:

Periods that immediately follow END-EXEC are always treated as part of the EXEC statement.

An example of when this directive is important is when a paragraph or section header follows the EXEC statement, as the header requires a preceding terminating period.