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Stages 3, 4 and 4a 850 hours distance learning 12 days in-centre The aim of this stage of the Applications Programming course is to introduce students to as many of the main elements of the COBOL programming language as possible so that they are able to write programs to the commercial standards expected of a junior/trainee programmer. Good programming logic is encouraged and therefore emphasis is placed on structured design methodologies. Several tasks/exercises will require the student to supplement their coded solutions with flow charts, structure charts and other supporting documentation. The language elements used are from a variety of PC-based MicroFocus COBOL compilers, using a superset of ANSI COBOL '85 standards. Section 1: COBOL and Data ~ The purpose and function of each of the four COBOL divisions ~ The reserved words list and the standards for producing user-defined names ~ Layout of coding for readability purposes ~ Data types and PIC clauses ~ Various ways of storing numeric data (packed decimal/binary) ~ File formats and record structures ~ How the compiler works Section 2: Manipulating Data ~ Various methods of assigning values to data elements and groups ( inc. VALUE INITIALIZE, MOVE, CORRESPONDING) ~ Methods for amending and redefining data ( inc. REDEFINES, INSPECT, and data editing pictures ~ Stringing and unstringing data ~ The use of COPY libraries ~ Arithmetic statements (COMPUTE, ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, DIVIDE, ROUNDED, REMAINDER, ON SIZE ERROR) Section 3: Input/Output Conditions ~ Keyboard and screen use(ACCEPT,DISPLAY) ~ Using sequential and line sequential files ~ File access methods (OPEN, CLOSE, (NOT) AT END, WRITE, RE-WRITE, DELETE) ~ Methods of conditional testing ( IF, EVALUATE, LEVEL 88, FLAGS/SWICHES) ~ Class, Relational and Signed conditions. ~ Combining and nesting conditions Section 4: Program Control This section concentrates on structuring programs for the purpose of readability and maintenance. ~ Breaking large programs down into manageable procedures/subroutines ~ Program control using all variations of the PERFORM statement (in/out-of-line, nesting) ~ The purpose/function of sub-programs ( inc. linkage section) ~ Using the CALL statement ~ The use of scope terminators ~ Printing of reports (setting up of LINAGE clause, using AT EOP condition, LINE and PAGE options, designing print layouts) Section 5: Use of Tables This section looks at setting up and using various tables/arrays. It also covers modulus check digits and formulae for calculating them. ~ The purpose and function of tables/arrays ~ Defining single dimensional and multi- dimensional tables ~ Initialising, filling and accessing table groups and elements up to four dimensions ( inc. the use of SEARCH, ALL and SET) ~ Using binary search/chop methods. Section 6: Further File Handling and Program Design This section covers more file handling techniques, including relative and indexed files. Programs design is further discussed by designing and coding a variety of solutions. ~ Handling files with variable length records ~ File sorting and merging methods ( inc. SORT, INPUT PROCEDURE, OUTPUT PROCEDURE, MERGE, multiple input files) ~ Defining, creating and using relative and indexed files (inc. SEQUENTIAL, RANDOM and DYNAMIC access, and the use of START and READ NEXT options) ~ File access error handling ( inc. INVALID KEY and FILE STATUS codes) ~ Further program design methods ( stepwise refinement and pseudo-code) ~ Creating test data files Summary On completion of the Stage Three material the student is armed with enough programming knowledge to complete the Computeach Diploma examination and go on to undertake the comprehensive programming projects that forms the basis of Stage Four. |
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