Just like the evergreen, the COBOL programming language has remained vibrant and full of life year after year.
Today, COBOL is running a large number of the world's business data applications, and it's likely to remain a viable
language in the years ahead.
Now in its 11th Edition, Nancy Stern, Robert Stern, and James Ley's COBOL for the 21st Century continues to show
how to design COBOL programs that are easy to read, debug, modify, and maintain. You'll learn to write interactive
programs as well as batch programs with sophisticated file processing techniques, and become familiar with valuable
information processing and systems concepts.
Features
Updated to reflect COBOL 2008, where appropriate.
A chapter on the Report Writer Module.
More end-of-chapter questions.
A running case study builds on what you have learned in each chapter.
Integrated coverage of interactive programming.
Covers information processing and systems concepts that will help you interact with users and systems analysts
when designing programs.
Introduces programming tools such as pseudocode and hierarchy charts that make program logic more structured,
modular, and top-down.
Presents useful techniques for maintaining and modifying older "legacy" programs.
Effective learning tools, including chapter outlines and objectives, debugging tips and exercises, critical-thinking
questions, and programming assignments.
Links to COBOL Internet resources.
Companion Website (www.wiley.com/college/stern), featuring a syntax reference guide, data sets for all programming
assignments, and all programs illustrated in the book.
Table of Contents
Unit I: The Basics.
1. An Introduction to Structured Program Design in COBOL.
2. The IDENTIFICATION and ENVIRONMENT DIVISIONS.
3. The DATA DIVISION.
4. Coding Complete COBOL Programs: The PROCEDURE DIVISION.
Unit II: Designing Structured Programs.
5. Designing and Debugging Batch and Interactive COBOL Programs.
6. Moving Data, Printing Information, and Displaying Output Interactively.
7. Computing in COBOL: The Arithmetic Verbs and Intrinsic Functions.
8. Decision Making Using the IF and EVALUATE Statements.
9. Iteration: Beyond the Basic PERFORM.
Unit III: Writing High-Level COBOL Programs.
10. Control Break Processing.
11. Data Validation.
12. Array Processing and Table Handling.
Unit IV: File Maintenance.
13. Sequential File Processing.
14. Sorting and Merging.
15. Indexed and Relative File Processing.
Unit V: Advanced Topics.
16. Improving Program Performance Using the COPY, CALL, and Other Statements.
17. The Report Writer Module.
Appendixes.
A. COBOL Character Set and reserved Words.
B. Differences Among the COBOL Standards.
C. Glossary.
