Re: Filler keyword not mandatory?

From: Colin Campbell (cmcampb_at_adelphia.net_remove_this)
Date: 11/07/03 

Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003 10:25:46 -0800

Since the reserved word FILLER is optional in the 1985 ANSI COBOL
Standard, why do you consider it bad form to omit it? (If it were
simply an extension put in by a compiler writer, I think I would feel
differently, because it might make a program less portable to another
compiler / platform.)

What advantage is gained by coding FILLER? Whether FILLER is explicitly
coded or not, the data item has no name, and cannot be referenced
(except by reference modification).

Many programmers intentionally introduce white space into COBOL programs
as a readability aid. If it were your practice to align all the data
names in a record description, the lack of anything on a line would tend
to catch your eye and tell you "here is some FILLER". Or, if you were
coding a literal whose purpose was to help you find your way in a dump,
you could get more of the literal ona single line by omitting the word
FILLER.

Mark A Framness wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I am looking at some MF cobol code and see the following definition:
>
> 05 ws-report-fld1 pic x(10) value spaces.
> 05 pic x(03) value spaces.
> 05 ws-report-fld2 pic x(05) value spaces.
> 05 pic x(03) value spaces.
> ......
>
> Apparently the filler keyword is optional. Is this a MF cobol thing or
> is it widespread?
>
> Not to start a religious war but IMO it is very poor style to not use
> filler in the above example.
>
> ttyl

Relevant Pages

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