Control Data Corporation 3300 Reference Manual page 56

3.5.7
PICTURE
3-22
The PICTURE clause describes general characteristics and editing require-
ments of an elementary item; it may be used only at the elementary item level.
{
PICTURE} .
PIC IS character strmg
A character string consists of a maximum of 30 characters from the COBOL
set. The particular combination of characters determines the category of
the item. Six categories of data may be described with a PICTURE clause:
alphabetic, numeric, alphanumeric, alphanumeric edited, numeric edited,
and floating point edited.
The number of symbols that represent character positions indicate the size
of an item. (Size means the number of character positions occupied by the
item in standard data format.) For instance, an item containing 12 character
positions is represented by a PICTURE clause containing either 12 symbols,
AAAAAAAAAAAA, or the integer 12 in parentheses following the symbol,
A(12). An integer in parentheses can be used to show the number of con-
secutive occurrences of the symbols: A X 9 P B 0
* ,
+ - Z or the currency
sign.
Alphabetic
The PICTURE string for an alphabetic item contains only the symbol A
specified as many times as required. The item may contain any combination
of letters of the alphabet and spaces not exceeding 131,067 alphabetic
character positions.
Numeric
The PICTURE string for a numeric item is composed of the symbols 9 P S V.
The item may contain any combination of numerals 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and an
optional plus
(+)
or minus (-) sign. The maximum size of the item is 18
numeric digit positions.
Alphanumeric
The PICTURE string for an alphanumeric item may contain the symbols A X
and 9 only. It may contain all X's, but not all A's or all 9' s; and an alpha-
numeric item is always treated as if it were all X's. Contents of the item are
characters allowable in the computer's character set. The maximum size of
the item is 131,067 alphanumeric character positions.
The following three categories are PICTURES of edited items. Editing alters
the format or the punctuation of data in an item; characters can be suppressed
or added.
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