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COBOL - Identification Division

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION must be the first division in each COBOL source program. There may be several paragraphs in this division of which PROGRAM-ID is essential paragraph.

Each program has a Program id - Name of the program. Author - Person who is writing the program and other information like date written, date compiled.

Since the information identifies a particular program, these are defined in IDENTIFICATION DIVISION, which is the First line of the COBOL program. Except PROGRAM-ID all the other paragraphs are optional and are mainly for documentation purposes.

Given below is the example for Identification Division:

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. IDSAMPLE.
AUTHOR. PROGRAMMER NAME.
INSTALLATION. COBOL DEVELOPMENT CENTER.
DATE-WRITTEN. 12/02/94.
DATE-COMPILED. 12/09/94 12:57:53.
SECURITY. NON-CONFIDENTIAL.

PROGRAM-ID: The first paragraph of the Identification Division must be the PROGRAM-ID paragraph. The other paragraphs are optional, but, when written, must appear in the order shown in the format. This program names is used to identify the object program.

The Program name is a user-defined word that identifies your program. The system uses the first 8 characters of program-name of the outermost program as the identifying name of the program.
  • The first 8 characters of program-name of the outermost program should be unique within the system. The first character must be alphabetic.

  • If the first character is not alphabetic, it is converted as follows:

    1. 1 through 9 are changed to A through I

    2. Anything else is changed to J.

  • If a hyphen is used in characters 2 through 8 of the program-name of the outermost program, it is changed to zero (0).
Apart from these statements, there can be comment statements describing the functionality of the program, and a change log block giving the details about programmers who changed the program as a part of enhancement to the program.

AUTHOR: This optional paragraph was removed from the standard in 1985, but most COBOL compilers still support its use. Code the programmer's name following the paragraph name. There are no formatting rules for the programmer's name. For example: AUTHOR. ALBERT.

INSTALLATION: This optional paragraph was removed from the standard in 1985, but most COBOL compilers still support its use. Code the programmer's employer's name following t e paragraph name. There are no formatting rules for the programmer s employer's name.For example: INSTALLATION. TWIN CORPORATION.

DATE-WRITTEN: This optional paragraph was removed from the standard in 1985, but most COBOL compilers still support its use. Code the date the program paragraph name. There are no formatting rules for the date. For example: DATE-WRITTEN. SEP 1990.

DATE-COMPILED: This optional paragraph was removed from the standard in 1985, but many COBOL compilers still support its use. Code the paragraph name only. The system date will be inserted in this area for documentation purposes. For example: DATE-COMPILED.

SECURITY: This optional paragraph was removed from the standard in 1985, but most COBOL compilers still support its use. Code the security level of the program following the paragraph name. There are no formatting rules for the security level and this entry will have no actual effect on access to the program. The paragraph is for documentation purposes only. For example: SECURITY. NON-CONFIDENTIAL.

REMARKS: This optional paragraph was removed from the standard in 1985, but many COBOL compilers still support its use. Code the paragraph name followed by any desired comments, such as the primary purpose of the program. For example REMARKS. THIS IS THE LOGIN SCREEN MODULE.


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