Managed COBOL Language Features

The following new syntax elements are now available in managed COBOL:

Local Variables

In managed COBOL, Data items can now be declared in the procedure division, using the DECLARE statement. In addition, they can be declared inline as the iterator in a PERFORM statement, or as an exception message in a TRY … CATCH … FINALLY statement block.

Collections

There are two new collection types in managed COBOL: LIST and DICTIONARY. For a LIST, you can add elements to a list, retrieve the nth element of the list, replace the nth element, iterate through the list and clear the list. For a DICTIONARY, you can add key value pairs, retrieve a value corresponding to a key, to replace the value corresponding to a key, iterate through the dictionary and clear the dictionary.

Properties

In managed COBOL, a property can now be defined using PROPERTY-ID and GETTER and SETTER phrases to access to the property. The previous technique of specifying the keyword PROPERTY on a data declaration is still available.

Indexers

In managed COBOL, an indexer can now be defined using INDEXER-ID and GETTER and SETTER phrases to access the indexer value. Indexers are similar to properties, except that their accessors take parameters. Indexers allow instances of a class or valuetype to be indexed just like arrays.

Zero-based Indexing

The managed COBOL syntax for arrays now uses zero-base indexing to access arrays when square brackets are specified. For backward compatibility, one-base indexing is used when round parentheses are specified.