IBM Mainframe Forum

Recently Somebody asked me this questing.
1. What is the maximum length of a variable that can be defined in COBOL?

Thanks

Look in the section "Appendix B. Compiler Limits":

http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin ... /CCONTENTS

Hello and welcome to the forum,

The limit varies by which release of the compiler is being used. There is a different set of "limits" for each compiler.

Make sure you look at the "Compiler Limits" for your compiler. . .

What's the limit for cobol 85 compiler?

"COBOL 85 compiler" is not a mainframe compiler. It is a reference to one of the standards for COBOL but that does not identify a version of the compiler. Enterprise COBOL, COBOL for MVS & VM, OS/390 COBOL, VS COBOL II, OS/VS COBOL -- these are all mainframe COBOL compiler versions. Notice there is not a single version (85 or any other year) listed.

The link you need to research is http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/cobol/library/