COBOL Reserved Words

The following are reserved words in one or more of the many different versions of COBOL. Where a given entry is not a reserved word in your particular version of COBOL it is still best avoided in order to make the code as portable as possible.

ACCEPT ACCESS ADD ADDRESS ADVANCING AFTER ALL ALLOWING ALPHABET ALPHABETIC ALPHABETIC-LOWER ALPHABETIC-UPPER ALPHANUMERIC ALPHANUMERICEDITED ALSO ALTER ALTERNATE AND ANY APPLY ARE AREA AREAS ARITHMETIC ASCENDING ASSIGN AT AUTHOR AUTOMATIC B-AND B-EXOR B-LESS B-NOT B-OR BASIS BEFORE BEGINNING

INTO INVALID INVOKE IS JUST JUSTIFIED KANJI KEEP KEY LABEL LAST LD LEADING LEFT LENGTH LESS LIMIT LIMITS LINAGE LINAGE-COUNTER LINE LINE-COUNTER LINES LINKAGE LOCALLY LOCAL-STORAGE LOCK LOW-VALUE LOW-VALUES MEMBER MEMORY MERGE MESSAGE METACLASS METHOD METHOD-ID MODE MODIFY

BINARY BIT BITS BLANK BLOCK BOOLEAN BOTTOM BY CALL CANCEL CBL CD CF CH CHARACTER CHARACTERS CLASS CLASS-ID CLOCK-UNITS CLOSE COBOL CODE CODE-SET COLLATING COLUMN COM-REG COMMA COMMIT COMMON COMMUNICATION COMP COMP-1 COMP-2 COMP-3 COMP-4 COMP-5 COMP-6 COMP-7 COMP-8 COMP-9 COMPUTATIONAL COMPUTATIONAL-1 COMPUTATIONAL-2 COMPUTATIONAL-3 COMPUTATIONAL-4

MODULES MORE-LABELS MOVE MULTIPLE MULTIPLY NATIVE NEGATIVE NEXT NO NORMAL NOT NULL NULLS NUMBER NUMERIC NUMERIC-EDITED OBJECT OBJECTCOMPUTER OCCURS OF OFF OMITTED ON ONLY OPEN OPTIONAL OR ORDER ORGANIZATION OTHER OUTPUT OVERFLOW OVERRIDE OWNER PACKED-DECIMAL PADDING PAGE PAGE-COUNTER PARAGRAPH PASSWORD PERFORM PF PH PIC

COMPUTATIONAL-5 COMPUTATIONAL-6 COMPUTATIONAL-7 COMPUTATIONAL-8 COMPUTATIONAL-9 COMPUTE CONFIGURATION CONNECT CONTAINED CONTAINS CONTENT CONTINUE CONTROL CONTROLS CONVERTING COPY CORR CORRESPONDING COUNT CURRENCY CURRENT CYCLE DATA DATE DATE-COMPILED DATE-WRITTEN DAY DAY-OF-WEEK DB DB-ACCESSCONTROL-KEY DB-DATA-NAME DB-EXCEPTION DB-RECORD-NAME DB-SET-NAME DB-STATUS DBCS DE DEBUG-CONTENTS DEBUG-ITEM DEBUG-LINE DEBUG-NAME DEBUG-SUB-1 DEBUG-SUB-2 DEBUG-SUB-3

PICTURE PLUS POINTER POSITION POSITIVE PRESENT PREVIOUS PRINTING PRIOR PROCEDURE PROCEDUREPOINTER PROCEDURES PROCEED PROCESSING PROGRAM PROGRAM-ID PROTECTED PURGE QUEUE QUOTE QUOTES RANDOM RD READ READY REALM RECEIVE RECONNECT RECORD RECORD-NAME RECORDING RECORDS RECURSIVE REDEFINES REEL REFERENCE REFERENCES RELATION RELATIVE RELEASE RELOAD REMAINDER REMOVAL RENAMES

DEBUGGING DECIMAL-POINT DECLARATIVES DEFAULT DELETE DELIMITED DELIMITER DEPENDING DESCENDING DESTINATION DETAIL DISABLE DISCONNECT DISPLAY DISPLAY-1 DISPLAY-2 DISPLAY-3 DISPLAY-4 DISPLAY-5 DISPLAY-6 DISPLAY-7 DISPLAY-8 DISPLAY-9 DIVIDE DIVISION DOWN DUPLICATE DUPLICATES DYNAMIC EGCS EGI EJECT ELSE EMI EMPTY ENABLE END END-ADD END-CALL END-COMPUTE END-DELETE END-DISABLE END-DIVIDE END-ENABLE END-EVALUATE

REPEATED REPLACE REPLACING REPORT REPORTING REPORTS REPOSITORY RERUN RESERVE RESET RETAINING RETRIEVAL RETURN RETURN-CODE RETURNING REVERSED REWIND REWRITE RF RH RIGHT ROLLBACK ROUNDED RUN SAME SD SEARCH SECTION SECURITY SEGMENT SEGMENT-LIMIT SELECT SELF SEND SENTENCE SEPARATE SEQUENCE SEQUENTIAL SERVICE SESSION-ID SET SHARED SHIFT-IN SHIFT-OUT SIGN

END-IF END-INVOKE END-MULTIPLY END-OF-PAGE END-PERFORM END-READ END-RECEIVE END-RETURN END-REWRITE END-SEARCH END-SEND END-START END-STRING END-SUBTRACT END-TRANSCEIVE END-UNSTRING END-WRITE ENDING ENTER ENTRY ENVIRONMENT EOP EQUAL EQUALS ERASE ERROR ESI EVALUATE EVERY EXACT EXCEEDS EXCEPTION EXCLUSIVE EXIT EXTEND EXTERNAL FALSE FD FETCH FILE FILE-CONTROL FILLER FINAL FIND FINISH

SIZE SKIP1 SKIP2 SKIP3 SORT SORT-CONTROL SORT-CORE-SIZE SORT-FILE-SIZE SORT-MERGE SORT-MESSAGE SORT-MODE-SIZE SORT-RETURN SOURCE SOURCECOMPUTER SPACE SPACES SPECIAL-NAMES STANDARD STANDARD-1 STANDARD-2 STANDARD-3 STANDARD-4 START STATUS STOP STORE STRING SUB-QUEUE-1 SUB-QUEUE-2 SUB-QUEUE-3 SUB-SCHEMA SUBTRACT SUM SUPER SUPPRESS SYMBOLIC SYNC SYNCHRONIZED TABLE TALLY TALLYING TAPE TENANT TERMINAL

FIRST FOOTING FOR FORM FORMAT FREE FROM FUNCTION GENERATE GET GIVING GLOBAL GO GOBACK GREATER GROUP HEADING HIGH-VALUE HIGH-VALUES I-O I-O-CONTROL ID IDENTIFICATION IF IN INDEX INDEX-1 INDEX-2 INDEX-3 INDEX-4 INDEX-5 INDEX-6 INDEX-7 INDEX-8 INDEX-9 INDEXED INDICATE INHERITS INITIAL INITIALIZE INITIATE INPUT INPUT-OUTPUT INSERT INSPECT

TERMINATE TEST TEXT THAN THEN THROUGH THRU TIME TIMEOUT TIMES TITLE TO TOP TRACE TRAILING TRANSCEIVE TRUE TYPE UNEQUAL UNIT UNSTRING UNTIL UP UPDATE UPON USAGE USAGE-MODE USE USING VALID VALIDATE VALUE VALUES VARYING WAIT WHEN WHEN-COMPILED WITH WITHIN WORDS WORKINGSTORAGE WRITE WRITE-ONLY ZERO

INSTALLATION

ZEROES ZEROS

CICS reserved word table (IGYCCICS)

Enterprise COBOL provides an alternate reserved word table specifically for CICS application programs. It is set up so that COBOL words not supported under CICS are flagged by the compiler with an error message. The CICS reserved word table is the same as the default reserved word table except that the following COBOL words are marked as restricted (RSTR):

CLOSE DELETE FD FILE FILE-CONTROL INPUT-OUTPUT

I-O-CONTROL MERGE OPEN READ RERUN REWRITE

SD SORT START WRITE

he following table contains a list of the keywords that are checked by KC or KCHECK.
AAVE R ABS ACCE PT ADD ALL AMAX AMIN ANAV ER ANCO UNT BREAK BROW SE CALL CALLD BPROC CALLN AT CLOSE COMM IT COMP OSE COMP RESS COMP UTE COPY DIVIDE DLOGO FF DLOGO N DNATI VE DO DOEND DOWNL OAD DRAW EJECT ELSE END ENDALL ENDENDENDPAG E ENDERROR END-FILE ENDFIND END-FOR ENDHISTOGR AM ENDHOC END-IF ENDLOOP ENDNOREC ENDWORK ENTIR E ESCA PE EXAM INE EXP EXPA ND EXPO RT FALSE FETC H FIND FOR INCCO NT INCDI C INCDI R INCLU DE INCMA C INPUT INSER T INT INVES TIGAT E LIMIT NCOUN T NEWPA GE NMIN NONE NULLHANDL E OBTAI N OLD ON OPEN OPTION S PASSW PERFO REDU CE REIN PUT REJE CT RELE ASE REPE AT RESE T RESIZ E REST ORE RET RETR SETTI ME SGN SHO W SIN SKIP SORT SORT KEY SQRT STAC K STAR T STOP STOR E TERM INATE TOP TOTA L TRAN SFER TRUE UNTIL UPDA TE UPLO AD VAL VALU E VALU ES

ANMIN ANY ASSI GN ASUM AT ATN AVE R BAC KOU T BEFO RE

COS COUN T CREAT E DECID E DEFIN E DELET E DISPL AY

BEFOR E ENDBREAK ENDBROWS E ENDDECIDE ENDENDDA TA ENDENDFIL E

ENDREAD ENDREPEAT ENDRESULT ENDSELECT ENDSORT ENDSTART ENDSUBROU TINE ENDTOPPAGE

FORM AT FRAC GET HISTO GRAM IF IGNO RE IMPO RT

LOG LOOP MAP MAX MIN MOVE MULTI PLY NAVE R

RM PLOT POS PRINT PROCE SS READ REDEFI NE

Y RETU RN ROLL BACK RULE VAR RUN SELE CT SEND SEPA RATE SET

SUBS TR SUBS TRIN G SUBT RACT SUM SUSP END TAN

WAST E WHEN WHIL E WRIT E