In COBOL, the FUNCTION ______ intrinsic function can be used to determine the current date.
- CURRENT-DATE
- DATE
- DAY
- TIME
The FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE in COBOL is used to retrieve the current date and time. It returns a data structure containing various components such as year, month, day, hour, minute, and second.
When declaring a table in COBOL, which clause specifies the number of occurrences?
- DEPENDING ON
- INDEXED BY
- OCCURS
- REDEFINES
The OCCURS clause in COBOL is used to declare a table and specifies the number of occurrences or elements in that table. It defines the size of the table and the number of times data is repeated within it.
You are developing a payroll system in COBOL. Which arithmetic operation should you use to calculate the gross salary of an employee based on their hourly wage and hours worked?
- ADD
- COMPUTE
- DIVIDE
- MULTIPLY
To calculate gross salary, you should use the MULTIPLY operation to multiply the hourly wage by the number of hours worked, giving the total amount earned. ADD, DIVIDE, and COMPUTE are not appropriate for this specific calculation.
To prevent duplicate records from being inserted into an indexed file, you can use the _____ clause in the file description.
- DISTINCT
- NO-DUPLICATES
- NO-DUPS
- UNIQUE
The NO-DUPLICATES clause in the file description of an indexed file ensures that duplicate records with the same key value are not allowed, preventing the insertion of records with duplicate keys.
What is the purpose of the FUNCTION PRESENTATION intrinsic function in COBOL?
- It calculates the present value of an investment
- It converts a character string to a numeric value
- It retrieves the current presentation layer
- It returns the presentation of a numeric value as a character string
The FUNCTION PRESENTATION intrinsic function in COBOL is used to return the presentation of a numeric value as a character string, allowing for custom formatting.
In COBOL, what is the difference between the COMP and COMP-3 data types?
- COMP is a binary format, while COMP-3 is a packed decimal format
- COMP is the only numeric data type in COBOL
- COMP is used for characters, while COMP-3 is for numbers
- COMP-3 is an obsolete data type
The primary difference between COMP and COMP-3 in COBOL lies in their representation. COMP uses a binary format, while COMP-3 uses a packed decimal format, allowing for efficient storage of numeric data with a varying number of digits.
In COBOL, the _____ clause is used to specify the action to be taken when a file operation results in an exception condition.
- ERROR HANDLING
- EXCEPTION HANDLER
- INVALID KEY
- ON EXCEPTION
In COBOL, the INVALID KEY clause is used to specify the action to be taken when a file operation results in an exception condition, such as attempting to read a record that does not exist.
The "EVALUATE" statement can be used to simulate a _____ statement with multiple conditions.
- DIVIDE
- GOTO
- PERFORM
- Switch
The "EVALUATE" statement in COBOL serves a similar purpose as a "switch" statement in other programming languages. It allows for multiple conditions to be tested, providing a structured and efficient way to handle different cases.
In COBOL, what is the difference between the ADD and SUBTRACT statements when performing arithmetic operations?
- ADD adds values, and SUBTRACT subtracts values from the receiving field
- ADD and SUBTRACT are interchangeable in COBOL
- ADD is used for numeric addition, and SUBTRACT is used for alphanumeric subtraction
- ADD is used for subtraction, and SUBTRACT is used for addition
The ADD statement in COBOL is used for numeric addition, while the SUBTRACT statement is used for numeric subtraction. It's crucial to understand the distinction to perform accurate arithmetic operations in COBOL programs.
You are working on a COBOL program that performs a merge operation on two sorted files. How can you ensure that the merge operation is efficient and optimized for performance?
- Implementing a binary search algorithm
- Pre-sorting the input files before merging
- Using indexed files for both input files
- Using the SORT verb provided by COBOL
Pre-sorting the input files before merging ensures that the records are already in sorted order, which simplifies the merge process and improves performance. This reduces the need for complex sorting algorithms during the merge operation.