Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

 ◄Back►                                      ◄Up► ◄Contents► ◄Index► ◄Back►
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
     These messages are output when the compiler is checking your
     COBOL program for syntax and consistency. This On-line Reference
     lists the text of each message, explains the error or problem
     that causes the message, and gives advice on how to prevent it.
     The severity is not listed, as the same message can be output
     with a different severity depending on the setting of directives.
 
     They have the following format:
 
         LINE OF COBOL CODE
         **nnnn-s code****                     (mmmm)**
         **message
 
     where:
 
         nnnn is the message number;
         mmmm is the page where the previous error occurred;
         s is one of the following severity codes:
 
         U         Unrecoverable. An unrecoverable error stops the
                   COBOL system. These messages are produced by
                   the run-time system. See also ◄RTS Errors►
 
         S         Severe. You must correct the syntax error or
                   inconsistency in your program. Otherwise the
                   compiler cannot generate code.
 
         E         Error. The compiler will make an assumption about
                   what you meant. You may wish to correct your program
                   in case the compiler's assumption is not what
                   you intended.
 
         W         Warning. This means there may be an error, although
                   the program is syntactically correct.
 
         I         Information. This draws your attention to something
                   in the source code that you may need to be aware of.
                   It does not mean there is an error.
 
 
     The error messages can contain variable information. This
     information is indicated as an item between angled brackets. For
     example:
 
        Text:         User-name <data-name> not unique
 
     will have the name of the item that is not unique in place of the
     text <data-name>.
                                    -♦-