Summary of changes
This section lists the key changes that have been made
to this document for Enterprise COBOL for z/OS® Version 6 Release 2 and
Version 6 Release 2 with PTFs installed
. The changes that are
described in this information have an associated cross-reference for
your convenience.
The latest technical changes are
marked within >| and |< in the HTML version, or marked by vertical
bars (|) in the left margin in the PDF version.

Version 6 Release 2 with PTFs installed
- PI91584: As the new compiler option COPYLOC is introduced, the COPY statement is updated. (COPY statement and Copy member search order)
- PI95081: A new LOC(24|31) phrase is added to the ALLOCATE statement to control the location of dynamic storage that is acquired, which overrides the influence of the DATA compiler option. (ALLOCATE statement)
- PI97160: Add support for the TO FALSE phrase of the SET statement, as well as the corresponding WHEN SET TO FALSE clause, which allow you to use the SET statement to set condition names to values that will test false in conditions. This is part of the 2002 COBOL Standard. (Format 4: SET for condition-names and Format 2 VALUE clause: condition-name value)
- PI97434: Add support for processing national data items with the following intrinsic functions: If the updated intrinsic functions (REVERSE, ULENGTH, UPOS, USUBSTR, UWIDTH) in the May compiler PTFs (UI56120, UI56121, UI56122) are used, then the May Runtime PTF UI56043(V2R1)/UI56042(V2R2)/UI55861(V2R3) must also be applied to Language Environment on all systems where these programs are linked or run.
- PI99703: If the new intrinsic functions (BIT-OF, HEX-OF, E, PI, TRIM) in the July compiler PTFs (UI57342, UI57343, UI57344, UI57345) are used, then the July Runtime PTF UI57304(V2R1)/UI57303(V2R2)/UI57302(V2R3) must also be applied to Language Environment on all systems where these programs are linked or run.
- PH02183:
- The following intrinsic functions are added as IBM extensions:
- BIT-TO-CHAR (BIT-TO-CHAR)
- HEX-TO-CHAR (HEX-TO-CHAR)
- The following intrinsic functions are added as part of the 2014 COBOL Standard:
- ABS (ABS)
- BYTE-LENGTH (BYTE-LENGTH)
- EXP (EXP)
- EXP10 (EXP10)
- NUMVAL-F (NUMVAL-F)
- SIGN (SIGN)
- TEST-NUMVAL (TEST-NUMVAL)
- TEST-NUMVAL-C (TEST-NUMVAL-C)
- TEST-NUMVAL-F (TEST-NUMVAL-F)
- The following intrinsic functions are added as IBM extensions:
- PH02251: As the new keyword OMITTED is introduced, the JSON PARSE
statement is updated. (JSON PARSE statement)
If the new JSON PARSE keyword OMITTED in the September compiler PTFs (UI58632, UI58633, UI58634) are used, then the September Runtime PTF UI58596(V2R1)/UI58595(V2R2)/UI58603(V2R3) must also be applied on all systems where these programs are linked or run.
PH19715: The
UUID4
intrinsic function is introduced. (UUID4)Note that COBOL Runtime LE PTF UI66560(V2R2)/UI66555(V2R3)/UI66557(V2R4) must also be applied on all systems where programs that make use of this new feature are linked or run.
PH20084: A new "NAME is OMITTED" phrase is added to the JSON GENERATE statement to allow generation of an anonymous JSON object, whose top-level parent name is not generated. (JSON GENERATE statement)
Note that COBOL Runtime LE PTF UI66560(V2R2)/UI66555(V2R3)/UI66557(V2R4) must also be applied on all systems where programs that make use of this new feature are linked or run.


Version 6 Release 2
New statements
- The new JSON PARSE statement converts JSON text to COBOL data formats. (JSON PARSE statement)
New and changed special registers
- The new JSON-STATUS special register is used to indicate either that a JSON PARSE statement executed successfully or that a nonexception condition occurred. (JSON-STATUS)
- The JSON-CODE special register is also used to indicate either that a JSON PARSE statement executed successfully or that an exception condition occurred. (JSON-CODE)
New directives
- The following new compiler directives are added to support conditional compilation as defined in the 2002 COBOL Standard:
- The new INLINE directive allows the compiler to decide whether to inline procedures referenced by PERFORM statements in the source program. (INLINE)
