COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) is a high-level programming language designed specifically for business data processing needs. First introduced in 1959, COBOL has been one of the most enduring programming languages in history, with billions of lines of COBOL code still in active use today.
COBOL was created to provide a programming language that could:
COBOL was revolutionary for its time because it used English-like syntax rather than mathematical notation, making it more accessible to business analysts and non-mathematician programmers. This design choice aligned with its purpose: to create a standardized way for businesses to develop data processing applications.
12345IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD. PROCEDURE DIVISION. DISPLAY "Hello, business world!". STOP RUN.
The simple example above demonstrates COBOL's English-like structure, with clear divisions and statements that resemble natural language sentences.
COBOL's development was spearheaded by Grace Hopper, often referred to as the "mother of COBOL," along with a committee of industry professionals.
Original language specification that established the foundation for all future versions.
Standardized by ANSI, adding improved data handling and introducing structured programming with nested IF statements.
Major enhancement adding scope terminators (END-IF, END-PERFORM), inline PERFORM statements, and additional control structures.
Modern versions adding object-oriented programming, XML processing, cultural adaptability, and free-form syntax.
The language has continually evolved while maintaining backward compatibility, allowing systems designed decades ago to still run today with minimal changes.
COBOL's influence on business computing cannot be overstated:
95% of ATM transactions run through COBOL systems, with approximately 43% of banking systems built on COBOL.
More than 60% of insurance business runs on COBOL, handling policy management, claims processing, and reporting.
Critical infrastructure including Social Security, IRS, Medicare/Medicaid all rely on COBOL for their core processing.
Many point-of-sale systems, inventory management, and supply chain applications use COBOL backends.
COBOL programs typically run on mainframe environments, though they can be compiled and executed on various platforms:
The relationship between COBOL and the operating system often involves runtime libraries that provide system services to COBOL programs, allowing the same business logic to run on different platforms.
Despite being more than 60 years old, COBOL remains critical for several reasons:
COBOL systems often achieve 99.999% uptime, critical for financial and government systems.
220+ billion lines of COBOL in production, representing enormous investment and proven solutions.
Powers 90% of global financial transactions, making it essential infrastructure.
Encapsulates decades of verified business rules that would be risky to rewrite.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted COBOL's continued relevance when many state unemployment systems, built on COBOL, needed urgent updates to handle unprecedented claim volumes. This led to a renewed interest in COBOL skills.
Modern enhancements have kept COBOL relevant, including integration with web services, XML/JSON processing, and continued compiler improvements.
Here's a slightly more advanced COBOL example that demonstrates a simple payroll calculation:
1234567891011121314IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. PAYROLL-CALC. ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. DATA DIVISION. WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 01 EMPLOYEE-WAGE PIC 9(5)V99. 01 HOURS-WORKED PIC 9(3)V99. 01 WEEKLY-PAY PIC 9(6)V99. PROCEDURE DIVISION. MOVE 15.50 TO EMPLOYEE-WAGE. MOVE 40.00 TO HOURS-WORKED. COMPUTE WEEKLY-PAY = EMPLOYEE-WAGE * HOURS-WORKED. DISPLAY "Weekly Pay: $" WEEKLY-PAY. STOP RUN.
This COBOL program demonstrates some key language features: the four divisions, data declarations with PICTURE clauses, and computation operations.
Looking at the payroll example above, identify the following:
No, COBOL is not dead. Despite being over 60 years old, COBOL continues to run critical systems in banking, insurance, government, and many other sectors. An estimated 220+ billion lines of COBOL code are still in active use, processing millions of transactions daily.
Businesses continue using COBOL due to its reliability, the enormous risk of replacing core systems, decades of validated business logic, performance for data processing tasks, and decimal precision critical for financial calculations.
Learning COBOL can be valuable due to the growing skills gap as experienced programmers retire, creating job opportunities with competitive salaries. COBOL skills are often combined with modern technology expertise to help organizations modernize gradually.