COBOL Report Writer features and benefits

COBOL Report Writer is COBOL's own built-in, non-procedural facility for the production of printed output. It enables you to define and produce all the listings, reports, and displayed summaries normally required from a COBOL application, but in far less time.

COBOL Report Writer allows many more printed outputs, previously produced using stand-alone, non-COBOL report generators. It reduces the time and effort needed to code and test a COBOL program with printed output.

Originally, report writer appeared in 1961 and later entered the COBOL 1968 Standard. This version provided basic features that users of accounting machines were accustomed to, such as simple accumulation, cross-footing, counter-rolling, and automatic page numbering.

COBOL Report Writer contains all the facilities of the standard COBOL 1968, COBOL 1974, and COBOL 1985 report writer plus IBM extensions. It includes features that were added in various stages since 1974, many of which appear in the proposed COBOL 2002 Standard. It is suitable for the more varied and complex outputs needed by modern applications.

COBOL Report Writer includes the whole of the COBOL 1968, COBOL 1974, and COBOL 1985 report writer standards. If you use a COBOL compiler that has report writer built in, your programs should work just as they did before.

COBOL Report Writer has many new features that are not a part of these standards as well as enhancements to the original features. COBOL 1968 features that were deleted or changed in the COBOL 1974 and COBOL 1985 Standards are retained in this product.