MOVE semantics in COBOL

MOVE fits the sender to the receiver: padding with spaces one way, cutting the other.

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. MOVE-SEMANTICS.
DATA DIVISION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 LONG-NAME   PIC X(12) VALUE "Persephone".
01 WIDE-NAME   PIC X(16).
01 SHORT-NAME  PIC X(6).
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
*> MOVE fits the sender to the receiver: pad with spaces, or cut.
    MOVE LONG-NAME TO WIDE-NAME
    MOVE LONG-NAME TO SHORT-NAME
    DISPLAY "Padded:    [" WIDE-NAME "]"
    DISPLAY "Truncated: [" SHORT-NAME "]"
    STOP RUN.

How it works

1. Three alphanumeric fields differ only in width: 12, 16, and 6 characters.
2. Moving into the wider field left-justifies and pads with trailing spaces.
3. Moving into the narrow field keeps the left six characters and drops the rest.

Keywords and builtins used here

• DATA
• DISPLAY
• DIVISION
• IDENTIFICATION
• MOVE
• PROCEDURE
• SECTION
• STOP

The run, in numbers

Lines

14

Characters to type

416

Tokens

50

Three-star pace

40 tpm

At the three-star pace of 40 tokens a minute, this run takes about 75 seconds.

Type this snippet

Step 1 of 3 in Moving data, step 7 of 27 in Language basics.

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