Question 1

What is TALLYING in COBOL?

Accepted Answer

TALLYING is a clause used with INSPECT, STRING, and UNSTRING statements to count occurrences of characters, strings, or patterns in data. TALLYING counts how many times a specified character or string appears in a field and stores the count in a numeric variable. It's useful for data validation, parsing, and analyzing string content. TALLYING helps determine character frequencies, validate formats, and process string data.

Question 2

How do you use TALLYING with INSPECT?

Accepted Answer

Use TALLYING with INSPECT to count character occurrences: "INSPECT field-name TALLYING counter FOR CHARACTERS" counts all characters, or "INSPECT field-name TALLYING counter FOR ALL 'X'" counts occurrences of a specific character. The counter must be a numeric field that accumulates the count. TALLYING can count specific characters, character classes (like LEADING, BEFORE INITIAL), or multiple characters.

Question 3

What can you count with TALLYING?

Accepted Answer

TALLYING can count: 1) All characters in a field, 2) Specific characters (like counting how many times "A" appears), 3) Character classes (LEADING spaces, characters BEFORE INITIAL delimiter), 4) Multiple different characters, 5) String patterns. TALLYING is flexible and can count various patterns and character types depending on the operation being performed.

Question 4

How do you initialize the TALLYING counter?

Accepted Answer

Initialize the TALLYING counter to zero before use: "MOVE 0 TO counter" or use VALUE 0 in the data definition. TALLYING adds to the counter, so if it's not initialized, you'll get unpredictable results. Always initialize counters before TALLYING operations to ensure accurate counts.

Question 5

Can you use TALLYING with STRING?

Accepted Answer

TALLYING can be used with STRING to count characters transferred. Syntax: "STRING ... INTO target TALLYING counter". This counts how many characters were actually moved into the target field, which is useful for detecting overflow or verifying the string operation transferred the expected amount of data.

Question 6

What is the difference between TALLYING and counting manually?

Accepted Answer

TALLYING is a built-in COBOL feature that efficiently counts characters during string operations. Manual counting would require loops and character-by-character checking, which is more code and potentially slower. TALLYING integrates with INSPECT, STRING, and UNSTRING operations, providing counts as a side effect of those operations, making it more efficient and convenient than manual counting.

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COBOL TALLYING

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Related Concepts

Related Concepts

INSPECT Statement

STRING Statement

UNSTRING Statement

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