Character-string representation
The topic lists symbols that can appear once or more than once in the PICTURE character-string.
- Symbols that can appear more than once
- The following symbols can appear more than once in one PICTURE
character-string:
A B G N P X Z 9 0 / , + – * cs
At least one of the symbols A, G, N, X, Z, 9, or *, or at least two of the symbols +, –, or cs must be present in a PICTURE string.
An unsigned nonzero integer enclosed in parentheses immediately following any of these symbols specifies the number of consecutive occurrences of that symbol.
Example: The following two PICTURE clause specifications are equivalent:
PICTURE IS $99999.99CR PICTURE IS $9(5).9(2)CR
- Symbols that can appear only once
- The following symbols can appear only once in one PICTURE character-string:
E S V . CR DB
Except for the PICTURE symbol V, each occurrence of any of the above symbols in a given PICTURE character-string represents an occurrence of that character or set of allowable characters in the data item.