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COBOL Tutorial

COBOL IDENTIFICATION Division

The IDENTIFICATION Division represents the foundational component of every COBOL program, serving as the primary documentation and identification mechanism that establishes program identity, provides essential metadata, and supports comprehensive program documentation standards. This division enables proper program cataloging, version control, maintenance tracking, and organizational documentation while ensuring compliance with enterprise coding standards, facilitating program management, and supporting long-term maintainability across complex business application portfolios.

IDENTIFICATION Division Structure

Complete IDENTIFICATION Division Syntax
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IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. program-name [IS INITIAL|COMMON PROGRAM]. *> Optional paragraphs AUTHOR. author-name. INSTALLATION. installation-name. DATE-WRITTEN. date-written. DATE-COMPILED. date-compiled. SECURITY. security-level. REMARKS. program-description. *> Example with all paragraphs IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. PAYROLL-CALC. AUTHOR. JOHN SMITH. INSTALLATION. ACME CORPORATION. DATE-WRITTEN. 2024-01-15. DATE-COMPILED. 2024-01-15. SECURITY. CONFIDENTIAL. REMARKS. PAYROLL CALCULATION PROGRAM FOR WEEKLY PROCESSING. CALCULATES GROSS PAY, DEDUCTIONS, AND NET PAY. VERSION 2.1 - UPDATED TAX CALCULATIONS.
Program Identity
Documentation
Metadata

Comprehensive IDENTIFICATION Examples

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*> Business Application Example IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. CUSTOMER-MAINTENANCE. AUTHOR. JANE DOE, SENIOR DEVELOPER. INSTALLATION. ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS DIVISION. DATE-WRITTEN. JANUARY 15, 2024. DATE-COMPILED. JANUARY 20, 2024. SECURITY. RESTRICTED - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. REMARKS. CUSTOMER MASTER FILE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM PURPOSE: - ADD NEW CUSTOMER RECORDS - UPDATE EXISTING CUSTOMER INFORMATION - DELETE INACTIVE CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS - VALIDATE CUSTOMER DATA INTEGRITY PROCESSING NOTES: - PROCESSES DAILY TRANSACTION FILE - UPDATES INDEXED CUSTOMER MASTER FILE - PRODUCES EXCEPTION REPORT FOR ERRORS - MAINTAINS AUDIT TRAIL FOR ALL CHANGES VERSION HISTORY: V1.0 - INITIAL RELEASE (DEC 2023) V1.1 - ADDED DATA VALIDATION (JAN 2024) V1.2 - ENHANCED ERROR HANDLING (JAN 2024) DEPENDENCIES: - CUSTOMER MASTER FILE (CUSTMAST.DAT) - TRANSACTION FILE (CUSTTRAN.DAT) - VALIDATION COPYBOOK (CUSTVAL.CPY) ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. *> ... rest of program *> Scientific Application Example IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. STATISTICAL-ANALYSIS. AUTHOR. DR. ROBERT CHEN, DATA SCIENTIST. INSTALLATION. RESEARCH COMPUTING CENTER. DATE-WRITTEN. FEBRUARY 5, 2024. DATE-COMPILED. FEBRUARY 5, 2024. SECURITY. PUBLIC DOMAIN. REMARKS. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND REPORTING SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY: - DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS CALCULATION - CORRELATION ANALYSIS - REGRESSION MODELING - HYPOTHESIS TESTING INPUT: DATASET FILES IN CSV FORMAT OUTPUT: FORMATTED STATISTICAL REPORTS ALGORITHMS IMPLEMENTED: - PEARSON CORRELATION COEFFICIENT - LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS - T-TEST FOR MEAN COMPARISON - CHI-SQUARE GOODNESS OF FIT PERFORMANCE NOTES: - OPTIMIZED FOR LARGE DATASETS (>1M RECORDS) - MEMORY EFFICIENT PROCESSING - PARALLEL COMPUTATION READY *> Financial System Example IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. ACCOUNT-RECONCILIATION IS INITIAL PROGRAM. AUTHOR. FINANCIAL SYSTEMS TEAM. INSTALLATION. GLOBAL BANKING OPERATIONS. DATE-WRITTEN. MARCH 10, 2024. DATE-COMPILED. MARCH 12, 2024. SECURITY. TOP SECRET - FINANCIAL DATA. REMARKS. AUTOMATED ACCOUNT RECONCILIATION SYSTEM BUSINESS PURPOSE: RECONCILES DAILY TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN INTERNAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS AND EXTERNAL BANK STATEMENTS TO ENSURE FINANCIAL ACCURACY AND COMPLIANCE. REGULATORY COMPLIANCE: - SOX SECTION 404 REQUIREMENTS - FDIC REGULATORY REPORTING - BASEL III CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS PROCESSING SCHEDULE: - DAILY AT 11:30 PM EST - EMERGENCY RUNS AS NEEDED - MONTH-END SPECIAL PROCESSING CONTACT INFORMATION: PRIMARY: FINANCIAL.SYSTEMS@COMPANY.COM BACKUP: IT.SUPPORT@COMPANY.COM DISASTER RECOVERY: BACKUP SYSTEM: SITE-B-FINANCIAL-01 RTO: 4 HOURS RPO: 15 MINUTES *> Utility Program Example IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. FILE-CONVERTER. AUTHOR. SYSTEM UTILITIES TEAM. INSTALLATION. IT OPERATIONS CENTER. DATE-WRITTEN. APRIL 1, 2024. DATE-COMPILED. APRIL 1, 2024. SECURITY. INTERNAL USE ONLY. REMARKS. MULTI-FORMAT FILE CONVERSION UTILITY SUPPORTED CONVERSIONS: - FIXED TO VARIABLE LENGTH RECORDS - EBCDIC TO ASCII CHARACTER SETS - PACKED DECIMAL TO DISPLAY NUMERIC - RECORD LAYOUT TRANSFORMATIONS USAGE: CALL 'FILE-CONVERTER' USING INPUT-FILE OUTPUT-FILE CONVERSION-TYPE RETURN CODES: 00 - SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION 04 - WARNING CONDITIONS ENCOUNTERED 08 - ERROR CONDITIONS - PROCESSING HALTED 12 - SEVERE ERROR - CONTACT SUPPORT PERFORMANCE METRICS: - TYPICAL THROUGHPUT: 10,000 RECORDS/SECOND - MAXIMUM FILE SIZE: 2GB - SUPPORTED RECORD LENGTH: 1-32767 BYTES *> Batch Processing Example IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. MONTHLY-BILLING. AUTHOR. BILLING DEPARTMENT DEVELOPMENT TEAM. INSTALLATION. CUSTOMER SERVICE DIVISION. DATE-WRITTEN. MAY 15, 2024. DATE-COMPILED. MAY 16, 2024. SECURITY. CUSTOMER DATA - CONFIDENTIAL. REMARKS. MONTHLY CUSTOMER BILLING GENERATION SYSTEM PROCESSING OVERVIEW: GENERATES MONTHLY BILLS FOR ALL ACTIVE CUSTOMERS BASED ON USAGE DATA, SERVICE PLANS, AND BILLING RULES. INPUT FILES: - CUSTOMER MASTER (INDEXED) - USAGE TRANSACTIONS (SEQUENTIAL) - RATE TABLES (INDEXED) - PROMOTION CODES (SEQUENTIAL) OUTPUT FILES: - BILLING STATEMENTS (PRINT FORMAT) - BILLING SUMMARY REPORT - EXCEPTION REPORT - ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE UPDATE BUSINESS RULES: - PRO-RATED BILLING FOR PARTIAL MONTHS - AUTOMATIC DISCOUNT APPLICATION - TAX CALCULATION BY JURISDICTION - LATE FEE ASSESSMENT SCHEDULING: RUNS MONTHLY ON LAST BUSINESS DAY ESTIMATED RUNTIME: 4-6 HOURS PEAK MEMORY USAGE: 256MB QUALITY ASSURANCE: - CONTROL TOTAL VERIFICATION - SAMPLE INVOICE VALIDATION - AUTOMATED TESTING SUITE - MANAGEMENT APPROVAL PROCESS.

IDENTIFICATION Paragraph Details

Required Elements
  • PROGRAM-ID: Unique program identifier
  • • Must be first paragraph in division
  • • Follows COBOL naming rules
  • • Can specify INITIAL or COMMON
Optional Elements
  • AUTHOR: Program developer information
  • INSTALLATION: Organization details
  • DATE-WRITTEN: Creation date
  • SECURITY: Access classification

Modern Documentation Practices

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*> Modern comprehensive documentation example IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. CUSTOMER-API-GATEWAY. AUTHOR. MICROSERVICES TEAM - LEAD: SARAH JOHNSON. INSTALLATION. CLOUD PLATFORM - AWS US-EAST-1. DATE-WRITTEN. JUNE 20, 2024. DATE-COMPILED. JUNE 20, 2024. SECURITY. API-KEY-PROTECTED. REMARKS. ================================================================ CUSTOMER API GATEWAY SERVICE ================================================================ PURPOSE: Provides RESTful API gateway for customer data operations supporting microservices architecture and cloud deployment. API ENDPOINTS: GET /api/v1/customers/{id} - Retrieve customer POST /api/v1/customers - Create customer PUT /api/v1/customers/{id} - Update customer DELETE /api/v1/customers/{id} - Delete customer GET /api/v1/customers/search - Search customers TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: - Runtime: Enterprise COBOL 6.3 - Platform: z/OS 2.4 - Database: DB2 12.1 - Message Queue: IBM MQ 9.2 - Monitoring: IBM Application Performance Management PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS: - Response Time: <100ms (95th percentile) - Throughput: 10,000 TPS sustained - Availability: 99.99% uptime SLA - Concurrent Users: 50,000 maximum SECURITY FEATURES: - OAuth 2.0 Authentication - Field-Level Encryption (AES-256) - Audit Logging (All Operations) - Rate Limiting (1000 req/min per user) - Input Validation and Sanitization DATA PRIVACY COMPLIANCE: - GDPR Article 17 (Right to Erasure) - CCPA Consumer Rights - HIPAA Privacy Rule (Healthcare Customers) - PCI DSS Level 1 (Payment Data) DISASTER RECOVERY: - Primary Site: New York Data Center - DR Site: Chicago Data Center - RTO: 15 minutes - RPO: 5 minutes - Backup Schedule: Every 4 hours MONITORING AND ALERTING: - Health Checks: Every 30 seconds - Performance Metrics: Real-time dashboard - Error Notifications: Slack + PagerDuty - Log Aggregation: Splunk Enterprise DEPENDENCIES: - Customer Database (DB2) - Identity Service (LDAP) - Notification Service (Email/SMS) - Configuration Service (Consul) - Metrics Collection (Prometheus) VERSION CONTROL: Repository: https://github.com/company/customer-api Branch Strategy: GitFlow Code Review: Required (2+ approvals) CI/CD Pipeline: Jenkins + Docker + Kubernetes CONTACT INFORMATION: Team: microservices-team@company.com On-Call: +1-555-ONCALL (24/7) Slack: #microservices-support Wiki: https://wiki.company.com/customer-api ================================================================ *> Legacy system modernization example IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. LEGACY-MODERNIZATION-BRIDGE. AUTHOR. MODERNIZATION TEAM - ARCHITECT: DAVID WILSON. INSTALLATION. HYBRID CLOUD ENVIRONMENT. DATE-WRITTEN. JULY 8, 2024. DATE-COMPILED. JULY 8, 2024. SECURITY. ENTERPRISE-RESTRICTED. REMARKS. LEGACY SYSTEM MODERNIZATION BRIDGE MIGRATION STRATEGY: Provides seamless integration between legacy mainframe applications and modern cloud-native services during the gradual modernization process. INTEGRATION PATTERNS: - Event-Driven Architecture (Kafka) - API Gateway Pattern - Database Synchronization - Message Translation - Protocol Conversion SUPPORTED PROTOCOLS: Legacy Side: CICS, IMS, Batch JCL, MQ Series Modern Side: REST, GraphQL, gRPC, Webhooks DATA TRANSFORMATION: - EBCDIC <-> UTF-8 Character Conversion - Fixed Length <-> JSON Format - Hierarchical <-> Relational Mapping - Date Format Standardization MONITORING CAPABILITIES: - Transaction Flow Tracking - Performance Metrics Collection - Error Rate Monitoring - Capacity Planning Data - Business KPI Measurement ROLLBACK STRATEGY: - Blue-Green Deployment Support - Circuit Breaker Pattern - Graceful Degradation - Emergency Bypass Procedures TESTING APPROACH: - Unit Tests (85% Coverage) - Integration Tests - Performance Tests - Chaos Engineering - A/B Testing Framework.

Knowledge Check

Test Your Understanding

Question 1: Required Elements

What is the only required paragraph in the IDENTIFICATION Division?

Answer: PROGRAM-ID is the only required paragraph. It must uniquely identify the program and be the first paragraph in the IDENTIFICATION Division.

Question 2: Documentation Purpose

Why is comprehensive documentation in the IDENTIFICATION Division important?

Answer: It provides essential metadata for program management, maintenance, version control, security classification, and helps teams understand program purpose and dependencies.