Optional paragraphs

Some optional paragraphs in the IDENTIFICATION DIVISION can be omitted.

The optional paragraphs are:

AUTHOR
Name of the author of the program.
INSTALLATION
Name of the company or location.
DATE-WRITTEN
Date the program was written.
DATE-COMPILED
The DATE-COMPILED paragraph provides the compilation date in the source listing. If a comment-entry is specified, the entire entry is replaced with the current date, even if the entry spans lines. If the comment entry is omitted, the compiler adds the current date to the line on which DATE-COMPILED is printed. For example:

DATE-COMPILED. 06/30/10.
SECURITY
Level of confidentiality of the program.

The comment-entry in any of the optional paragraphs can be any combination of characters from the character set of the computer. The comment-entry is written in Area B on one or more lines.

Comment-entries serve only as documentation; they do not affect the meaning of the program. A hyphen in the indicator area (column 7) is not permitted in comment-entries.

You can include DBCS character strings as comment-entries in the IDENTIFICATION DIVISION of your program. Multiple lines are allowed in a comment-entry that contains DBCS character strings.

A DBCS character string must be preceded by a shift-out control character and followed by a shift-in control character. For example:


AUTHOR.       <.A.U.T.H.O.R.-.N.A.M.E>, XYZ CORPORATION
DATE-WRITTEN. <.D.A.T.E>

When a comment-entry that is contained on multiple lines uses DBCS characters, shift-out and shift-in characters must be paired on a line.