Comparison of commonly used terms

To better understand the terms used throughout the IBM® z/OS® Language Environment® and IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS information, and to understand which terms are meant to be equivalent, see the following table.

Language Environment term Enterprise COBOL equivalent
Aggregate Group item
Array A table created using the OCCURS clause
Array element Table element
Enclave Run unit
External data WORKING-STORAGE data defined using the EXTERNAL clause
Local data Any non-EXTERNAL data item
Pass parameters directly, by value BY VALUE
Pass parameters indirectly, by reference BY REFERENCE
Pass parameters indirectly, by value BY CONTENT
Routine Program
Scalar Elementary item