COBOL Full Form: Common Business-Oriented Language

The full form of COBOL is “common business-oriented language”. The main applications of COBOL are in government and corporate administrative, financial, and business systems. Applications running on mainframe computers, like extensive batch and transaction processing tasks, continue to make extensive use of COBOL.

As late as 2006, many major financial institutions were still using COBOL to create new systems; however, today, the majority of COBOL programming is done solely to support already existing applications. Programs are being replaced with new software, rewritten in contemporary languages, or transferred to new platforms.

What is COBOL Full Form?

COBOL Full Form is “common business-oriented language”.

What is COBOL?

The high-level, English-like compiled programming language known as Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) was created especially for business data processing requirements.

Programmers can use a readable, easily maintainable programming language that works on mainframe computers and operating systems thanks to COBOL’s verbosity, which was designed with maximum versatility in mind.

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COBOL Full Form – History

In the late 1950s, businesses and computer users were concerned about the high cost of programming. A 1959 survey showed that creating a data processing system cost around $800,000, and converting existing programs to new hardware cost about $600,000.

To address this, Mary K. Hawes from Burroughs Corporation organized a meeting on 8 April 1959, at the University of Pennsylvania. She gathered experts, including Jean Sammet, Saul Gorn, and Grace Hopper (creator of FLOW-MATIC). They discussed the need for a common, business-oriented programming language.

The group asked the U.S. Department of Defense to support the idea. Charles A. Phillips from the DoD agreed, recognizing that portable programs could save time, reduce costs, and help modernize systems. At the time, the DoD had already spent over $200 million on software and was planning to add 175 more computers to its existing 225.

COBOL Features

COBOL has changed over time to accommodate contemporary programming requirements while maintaining its organized, word-based structure. It is perfect for creating dependable and maintainable applications because of its strong data handling capabilities, clear program structure, and robust syntax rules. The main characteristics that characterize the syntax and structure of COBOL are listed below.

1. COBOL uses an English-like syntax, which makes programs easy to read and understand, even for non-programmers.

2. Conditions can be written in multiple styles, such as:

• x IS GREATER THAN y
• x GREATER THAN y
• x > y

3. Complex conditions can be shortened by removing repeated elements. Example: a > b AND a > c OR a = d. Can be written as: a > b AND c OR = d

4. COBOL has over 300 keywords, which include: Alternative spellings: e.g., IN or OF and Plural forms: e.g., TIME or TIMES, VALUE or VALUES

5. The language supports grammatically appropriate expressions, offering flexibility while keeping the code readable.

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Lexical Items in COBOL

Each COBOL program consists of four basic lexical elements:

1. Words:

• Includes reserved words and user-defined identifiers
• Can be up to 31 characters long
• May include letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores

2. Literals: Examples: Numerals (12) and Strings (‘Hello!’)

3. Picture character-strings (used in data formatting)

4. Separators: Include space, comma, and semicolon followed by a space

Structure of a COBOL Program

COBOL programs are divided into four major divisions:

• Identification Division: Specifies the program’s name & type, and Defines classes & interfaces
• Environment Division: Contains system-dependent characteristics (e.g., file names, character sets)
• Data Division: Used to declare variables and parameters
• Procedure Division: Contains the program’s logic or executable statements.

COBOL Metalanguage Notation

COBOL uses a metalanguage to define its syntax rules. This notation employs typographic conventions and special symbols to indicate whether elements are required, optional, or repeatable.

Applications of COBOL

The main applications of COBOL are in government and corporate administrative, financial, and business systems. Applications running on mainframe computers, like extensive batch and transaction processing tasks, continue to make extensive use of COBOL.

Although many financial institutions were still using COBOL to develop new systems as late as 2006, most COBOL programming is now limited to supporting applications that already exist. Programs are being replaced with new software, rewritten in contemporary languages, or transferred to new platforms.

COBOL-61

In the five years following its release, the COBOL specification underwent three revisions. COBOL-60 was replaced by COBOL-61 in 1961. In 1963, COBOL-61 was updated and replaced with an extended version that included new features like SORT and the Report Writer facility.

In a letter to the short-range committee in late 1959, Honeywell pointed out defects that the new facilities fixed. Additional specification clarifications and features for managing files and tables for mass storage were added in COBOL Edition 1965.

COBOL-68

In order to resolve version incompatibilities, efforts to standardize COBOL started. The United States of America Standards Institute (now ANSI) and ISO both established standards-creation committees in late 1962. The basis for subsequent versions of COBOL was established by ANSI in August 1968 with the creation of USA Standard COBOL X3.23. American National Standard (ANS) COBOL is the name given to this version. A few years later, in 1972, it was officially adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as a global standard.

Object-Oriented COBOL

According to the Gartner Group, around 80% of all business software in 1997 was running on an estimated 200 billion lines of COBOL code. That shows just how widely COBOL was used in the business world. In the early 1990s, work began on a major update to the language to add object-oriented programming features.

These new features were inspired by modern languages of the time, especially Smalltalk and C++.

The complete revision of COBOL was originally expected to be finished by 1997, and by that time, a Committee Draft (CD) was already available from ISO. Based on these early drafts, some vendors, like IBM, Fujitsu, and Micro Focus, went ahead and implemented the object-oriented syntax in their versions of COBOL.

Eventually, in late 2002, the final ISO standard was officially approved and released to the public.

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COBOL 2023

The COBOL 2023 standard introduced several new features to make the language more modern and adaptable to current programming needs.

1. SEND and RECEIVE statement syntax for asynchronous messaging.
2. A facility for processing transactions that has ROLLBACK and COMMIT capabilities.
3. The logical operator XOR.
4. The CONTINUE statement in COBOL can be enhanced to pause the program for a specific amount of time before continuing with the next instructions.
5. A DELETE FILE command.
6. LINE SEQUENTIAL file structure.
7. PERFORM UNTIL EXIT was used to define infinite looping.
8. The inherent purpose of Substring substitutions of different lengths are supported by SUBSTITUTE.
9. Base conversion using the CONVERT function.
10. Operators for boolean shifting.
11. This standard has not yet been fully implemented.

Advantages of COBOL

It’s because COBOL offers a range of benefits, especially when it comes to business data processing and system stability. Here are some of the reasons COBOL continues to be used:

• Self-Documenting Language: COBOL code is easy to understand without additional documentation.
• English-like Syntax: Written in simple, readable English, which makes it beginner-friendly.
• Efficient Data Handling: Well-suited for processing large volumes of data.
• Widely Used in Business Applications: Ideal for commercial, financial, and administrative systems.
• Easy Maintenance: Programs are structured and easy to update or modify

Disadvantages of COBOL

Despite its strengths, COBOL has some downsides that can be frustrating, especially for modern developers. Here are the main drawbacks:

• Requires Knowledge of Machine Languages: Programmers often need a deeper understanding of low-level computing.
• Verbose Code: English-like syntax leads to longer programs with a lot of typing.
• Slow Compilation: COBOL programs generally take more time to compile than modern languages.
• Rigid Coding Rules: Follows strict formatting rules, making coding less flexible.
• Shortage of Skilled Programmers: Fewer new developers are learning COBOL, leading to a decline in expertise.

COBOL Compatibility Issues

COBOL was originally designed to be a portable, “common” programming language that could run across different systems. However, by 2001, it had evolved into about 300 different dialects. Interestingly, one of the main reasons for this was the language’s own standard.

The 1974 COBOL standard included a mandatory core and eleven optional functional modules, each with multiple levels of support. This flexible structure allowed for up to 104,976 possible variations of COBOL, leading to fragmentation.

When COBOL-85 was introduced, it wasn’t fully compatible with earlier versions, and its release stirred a lot of debate. Joseph T. Brophy, then CIO of Travelers Insurance, led a campaign to raise awareness about the high reprogramming costs companies would face if they adopted the new standard.

As a result, the ANSI COBOL Committee received over 2,200 public responses, most of them critical, prompting the committee to revise parts of the standard. Despite the backlash, many believed that switching to COBOL-85 would boost productivity in the long run, making the initial cost of conversion worthwhile.

COBOL Full Form FAQs

What's the purpose of COBOL?

COBOL was created for business computer applications in fields like human resources and finance.

Is COBOL the first programming language?

In 1959, Grace Murray Hopper founded COBOL. It emerged as the first programming language of the third generation.

Is COBOL more effective than Python?

The syntax of COBOL, a procedural language, is rather intricate. Python is an object-oriented language with an easier-to-understand syntax.

Is COBOL still used today?

Yes, COBOL is still used in banking, finance, and government systems.

What type of language is COBOL?

COBOL is a high-level programming language used mainly for business applications.