IBM Mainframe Forum

Hi,

I need to parse only strings in below record using COBOL. Record has strings and sequence numbers. i need to take strings alone.
Please help me how to do.

MAINFRAME001
DOCUMENTATION002
FILES003
DATABSE004

As with your other post, your problem description lacks a LOT of the necessary details.

- Are the sequence numbers always at the end of the string?
- Are all the sequence numbers three digits?
- How long can the strings be?
- When you say "take the strings' what are you going to do with them?

For the sample data you provided, it is a minor process to peel off the last 3 digits from each value (using intrinsic functions and reference modification).

kanipriya2785 wrote:Hi,

I need to parse only strings in below record using COBOL. Record has strings and sequence numbers. i need to take strings alone.
Please help me how to do.

Select all

MAINFRAME001
DOCUMENTATION002
FILES003
DATABSE004

1) Please, learn how to use the Code button to format parts of the code in your postings.

2) Please, try to read something about UNSTRING statement in COBOL

Hi,

Here is my answers for your questions. Here there is no delimiter in the string. What function should i use to extract the String value alone?

- Are the sequence numbers always at the end of the string? -> yes.
- Are all the sequence numbers three digits? - yes
- How long can the strings be? - it is variable length.
- When you say "take the strings' what are you going to do with them? -> I need them to pass into another program as input.

Use FUNCTION REVERSE() to reverse the string.
Use FUNCTION TRIM( , LEADING) on the reversed string to remove leading spaces.
Use reference modification to move characters from the reversed, trimmed string starting with the 4th to another variable (which strips the sequence number).
Use FUNCTION REVERSE to get the string back in original sequence. Depending upon your lengths and desired output, you may need to use FUNCTION TRIM as well.

Thank you. I will try this. Thanks for your timely help.