Using Inspect Keyword in COBOL

Introduction

• Today's session topic: Replacing characters using the Inspect keyword.
• Previous sessions discussed using the Inspect keyword to count occurrences of characters.

Purpose of Inspect Keyword

• Inspect keyword is a statement that examines and modifies strings.
• Today's focus: Replacing specific characters in a string with other specific characters.

Important Points

• Such questions may appear in interviews.
• It is necessary to review previous sessions to clarify the basic knowledge.

Identification Division

• Program ID: Name of the program.
• Author's name.
• Comment line:
  • Replace all occurrences of a character.

Data Division

• The data division includes storage and working-storage sections.
• Variable declaration:
  • 01 data name and variable name.
  • PIC: Alpha numeric 40 characters.
  • Value clause: Optional and used as needed.

Requirement

• All characters should be converted to capital letters.
• Two small 't' characters should be replaced with capital 'T'.

Procedure Division

• Main logic of the program.
• Use of the Inspect keyword:
  • Inspect STR replacing all small t's by capital T's.
  • Displays modified string.

Conclusion

• The code is simple and clear.
• Program termination: Stop run.
• The output was seen after compiling and running the program.
• Useful in real-life scenarios.

Further Discussion

• Other important topics will be discussed in the next sessions.

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These notes are based on using the Inspect keyword in COBOL and explain the process of character replacement in a string in a simple way.