The BINARY-SHORT data type in COBOL represents a specialized 16-bit integer format designed for memory-efficient storage and seamless interoperability with C programming language applications, specifically matching the characteristics of C's short data type. This compact data type is essential for applications requiring optimal memory utilization, embedded systems programming, network protocol implementation, and scenarios where thousands or millions of small integer values must be stored efficiently while maintaining exact C language compatibility for mixed-language programming environments.
BINARY-SHORT provides a fixed 16-bit integer representation (2 bytes) that matches the C short data type across all platforms. This compact format is ideal for applications where memory conservation is critical while still providing a reasonable range of integer values for most business and technical applications.
1234567891011121314151617181920212223DATA DIVISION. WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 01 MEMORY-EFFICIENT-COUNTERS. 05 PAGE-NUMBER USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 LINE-COUNT USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 COLUMN-POSITION USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 ERROR-COUNT USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 01 NETWORK-PROTOCOL-DATA. 05 PORT-NUMBER USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 PACKET-SIZE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 SEQUENCE-NUMBER USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 CHECKSUM-VALUE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 01 ARRAY-INDICES. 05 ROW-INDEX USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 COLUMN-INDEX USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 TABLE-SIZE USAGE BINARY-SHORT VALUE 1000. PROCEDURE DIVISION. MOVE 80 TO PORT-NUMBER. MOVE 1024 TO PACKET-SIZE. MOVE 1 TO PAGE-NUMBER.
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556*> Large arrays with memory optimization DATA DIVISION. WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 01 INVENTORY-SYSTEM. 05 MAX-ITEMS USAGE BINARY-SHORT VALUE 10000. 05 ITEM-TABLE OCCURS 10000 TIMES. 10 ITEM-ID USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 10 QUANTITY USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 10 REORDER-LEVEL USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 10 SUPPLIER-CODE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 01 STATISTICS-COUNTERS. 05 DAILY-SALES USAGE BINARY-SHORT OCCURS 365 TIMES. 05 MONTHLY-TOTALS USAGE BINARY-SHORT OCCURS 12 TIMES. 05 HOURLY-COUNTS USAGE BINARY-SHORT OCCURS 24 TIMES. 01 COORDINATE-SYSTEM. 05 POINT-ARRAY OCCURS 5000 TIMES. 10 X-COORDINATE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 10 Y-COORDINATE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 10 Z-COORDINATE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. PROCEDURE DIVISION. INITIALIZE-INVENTORY. PERFORM VARYING WS-INDEX FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL WS-INDEX > MAX-ITEMS MOVE WS-INDEX TO ITEM-ID(WS-INDEX) MOVE 0 TO QUANTITY(WS-INDEX) MOVE 10 TO REORDER-LEVEL(WS-INDEX) MOVE 100 TO SUPPLIER-CODE(WS-INDEX) END-PERFORM. UPDATE-STATISTICS. *> Update daily sales counter ADD 1 TO DAILY-SALES(WS-DAY-OF-YEAR). *> Update hourly count ADD 1 TO HOURLY-COUNTS(WS-CURRENT-HOUR). *> Calculate monthly total COMPUTE MONTHLY-TOTALS(WS-CURRENT-MONTH) = MONTHLY-TOTALS(WS-CURRENT-MONTH) + WS-SALE-AMOUNT. PROCESS-COORDINATES. PERFORM VARYING WS-POINT FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL WS-POINT > 5000 COMPUTE X-COORDINATE(WS-POINT) = WS-POINT * 10 COMPUTE Y-COORDINATE(WS-POINT) = WS-POINT * 20 COMPUTE Z-COORDINATE(WS-POINT) = WS-POINT * 5 IF X-COORDINATE(WS-POINT) > 30000 DISPLAY "Warning: X coordinate approaching limit" END-IF END-PERFORM.
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758*> Network protocol implementation DATA DIVISION. WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 01 TCP-HEADER. 05 SOURCE-PORT USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 DEST-PORT USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 SEQUENCE-NUM USAGE BINARY-LONG. 05 ACK-NUM USAGE BINARY-LONG. 05 WINDOW-SIZE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 CHECKSUM USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 URGENT-POINTER USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 01 HTTP-RESPONSE. 05 STATUS-CODE USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 05 CONTENT-LENGTH USAGE BINARY-LONG. 05 CONNECTION-ID USAGE BINARY-SHORT. 01 PROTOCOL-CONSTANTS. 05 HTTP-PORT USAGE BINARY-SHORT VALUE 80. 05 HTTPS-PORT USAGE BINARY-SHORT VALUE 443. 05 FTP-PORT USAGE BINARY-SHORT VALUE 21. 05 SSH-PORT USAGE BINARY-SHORT VALUE 22. 05 TELNET-PORT USAGE BINARY-SHORT VALUE 23. PROCEDURE DIVISION. BUILD-TCP-HEADER. MOVE 8080 TO SOURCE-PORT. MOVE HTTP-PORT TO DEST-PORT. MOVE 1024 TO WINDOW-SIZE. MOVE 0 TO CHECKSUM. *> Calculate checksum CALL "calculate_checksum" USING BY REFERENCE TCP-HEADER BY REFERENCE CHECKSUM END-CALL. PROCESS-HTTP-REQUEST. EVALUATE STATUS-CODE WHEN 200 DISPLAY "OK - Request successful" WHEN 404 DISPLAY "Not Found" WHEN 500 DISPLAY "Internal Server Error" WHEN OTHER DISPLAY "HTTP Status: " STATUS-CODE END-EVALUATE. VALIDATE-PORT-RANGE. IF SOURCE-PORT < 1024 DISPLAY "Warning: Using privileged port " SOURCE-PORT END-IF. IF DEST-PORT > 65535 DISPLAY "Error: Invalid port number " DEST-PORT MOVE 1 TO WS-ERROR-FLAG END-IF.
| Data Type | Size per Element | 10,000 Elements | Memory Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| BINARY-SHORT | 2 bytes | 20,000 bytes | 19.5 KB |
| BINARY-LONG | 4 bytes | 40,000 bytes | 39.1 KB |
| PIC 9(5) | 5 bytes | 50,000 bytes | 48.8 KB |
Use BINARY-SHORT when values will never exceed 32,767 (signed) or 65,535 (unsigned) and memory conservation is important. It's perfect for counters, array indices, port numbers, and flags. Use BINARY-LONG when you need larger values or aren't concerned about memory usage.
Exceeding the range can cause overflow, leading to wraparound behavior or runtime errors depending on your COBOL compiler and runtime settings. Always validate input values and consider using BINARY-LONG or multiple fields if larger values are possible.
Yes, BINARY-SHORT is consistently 16 bits (2 bytes) across all platforms, making it highly portable. This fixed size is one of its advantages over some other data types that may vary by platform.