Further Reading — Chapter 17: String Handling

IBM Documentation

  • Enterprise COBOL for z/OS: Language Reference — Detailed syntax and semantics for STRING, UNSTRING, INSPECT, and reference modification, including all optional phrases.

  • Enterprise COBOL for z/OS: Programming Guide — Practical guidance on string handling, including performance considerations and common patterns.

Books

  • Stern, N., Stern, R., & Ley, J. COBOL for the 21st Century. Chapters on STRING, UNSTRING, and INSPECT with numerous worked examples.

  • Murach, M. Murach's Mainframe COBOL. Practical coverage of string handling in the context of real-world business programs, including CSV and delimited data processing.

Online Resources

  • IBM Developer: COBOL String Handling — Articles and tutorials on using COBOL string facilities for modern data interchange, including XML and JSON fragment building.

  • GnuCOBOL Programmer's Guide — String handling documentation specific to the GnuCOBOL compiler, with notes on portability between GnuCOBOL and Enterprise COBOL.

  • COBOL Standards Committee Documents — ISO/IEC 1989 standard sections on STRING, UNSTRING, and INSPECT for definitive language specifications.

  • Chapter 18: Table Handling and Searching — Tables often used in conjunction with string handling (lookup tables for code translation, abbreviation expansion).
  • Chapter 19: Pointer and Reference Modification — Deeper exploration of reference modification including complex offset computations.
  • Chapter 20: Intrinsic Functions — FUNCTION LENGTH, FUNCTION TRIM, FUNCTION UPPER-CASE, and other string-related intrinsic functions.
  • Chapter 39: Real-Time Integration — XML GENERATE and JSON GENERATE as alternatives to manual STRING-based XML/JSON building.
  • Chapter 40: COBOL and the Modern Stack — Modern data interchange patterns that build on string handling foundations.