Re: COBOL interview tests

JJ wrote:
As for your situation, where you said you never wrote a program from scratch - I know what you mean. We usually started with a template, rarely a blank slate. But when we had people do a test like this, we always allowed them to use the help file that contained the Cobol manual. I figured, heck, I had been programming in Cobol for 20+ years and I still occasionally used the manual, so there's no reason this person shouldn't be able to also. It was a programming skills test, not a memory test.

I was curious about this. Are you not allowed to use a manual? I've been at this nearly a decade now, but I still rely on my manual, probably on a weekly basis. From the "how do you" questions, to the "what does this do" stuff, the manual is an invaluable tool.

With the one question that's been mentioned - a merge. I've *never* done a merge. Never. Never studied it in class, never written it myself, never encountered it during maintenance. I'd need the manual for that question. :)

Without a manual, I'd take a stab at the syntax...

MERGE file-1 file-2
GIVING file-3

Ah - but I have a COBOL manual on my computer. Let's see... Looks like I'm missing a "USING" clause...

MERGE file-1 USING file-2 GIVING file-3

How about that - I learned something! :)

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: COBOL interview tests
    ... LX-i wrote: ... I'd take a stab at the syntax... ... MERGE file-1 file-2 ... MERGE file-1 USING file-2 GIVING file-3 ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: COBOL interview tests
    ... MERGE file-1 file-2 ... I'm missing a "USING" clause... ... MERGE file-1 USING file-2 GIVING file-3 ... Pete. ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)