COMP COMP-1 COMP-2 COMP-3









COMP COMP-1 COMP-2 COMP-3
COMP:Normally, a computer can store data in more than one internal form. 
In COBOL, a programmer is allowed to specify the internal form of 
the data item so as to facilitate its use in the most efficient 
manner. There are only two general forms of internal representation 
namely COMPUTATIONAL and DISPLAY. Only numeric data items can be 
specified as USAGE IS COMPUTATIONAL and the name itself suggests a 
data item specified as USAGE IS COMPUTATIONAL can take part in 
arithmetic operations more efficiently and any data item can be 
specified as USAGE IS DISPLAY. If we omit Usage clause compiler 
assume DISPLAY as default.
In COMP usage Data is stored as Pure Binary format internally. 
Depending on the size of the data item, it can be stored either 
in a half-word (2 bytes with range �32,768 to +32767) or full-
word (4 bytes with range �2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647). The 
PICTURE Clause of a COMPUTATIONAL data item should not contain 
any character other than 9 or S.Example : 01 WS--DS-HDR-LEN          PIC S9(02)  COMP.Which occupies 2 bytes and data stored as Pure binary format 
internally.
Data name length 	 Length in COBOL
9(01) to 9(04)           2 bytes
9(05) to 9(09)           4 bytes
S9(10) to S9(18)         8 bytes
COMP-1:In this case the data item will be represented in one word in 
the floating point form the number is actually represented in 
hexadecimal format and is suitable for arithmetic operations. 
The PICTURE Clause cannot be specified for COMP-1 items.  
COMP-1 takes 4 bytes of storage.
COMP-2:This is same as COMP-1, except that the data is represented 
internally in two words. The advantage is that this increases 
the precision of the data, which means that more significant 
digits are available. Similar to COMP-1, The PICTURE Clause 
cannot be specified for COMP-2 items also. COMP-1 takes 8 
bytes of storage.COMP-2 is more precision than COMP-1. 
Interview Question : Why COMP-1, COMP-2 don�t have PIC clause ?PIC creates relation between data name and data type. Whereas here 
data is numeric and length is predefined as one word floating for 
COMP-1 and double word floating for COMP-3. So no relation is 
required using PIC clause.
COMP-3:In this case the data is represented in the decimal form, but 
one digit takes half a byte. The sign is stored separately as 
the rightmost half a byte character. Find Comp-3 storage in bytes:  Length of variable/2, if this is 
not pure number then it takes immediate next number of bytes.For example S9(06) : which takes 4 bytes.
� for sign (S) and variable length is 6 which takes 3 bytes. 
total is 3 � so its immediate number is 4. Additional added � byte is called slack byte.COMP-3 Picture clause        Number of bytes occupied by the fieldS9(1) COMP-3                1 S9(2) COMP-3                2S9(3) COMP-3                2 S9(4) COMP-3                3               S9(5) COMP-3                3 S9(6) COMP-3                4S9(7) COMP-3                4 S9(8) COMP-3                5S9(9) COMP-3                5 S9(10) COMP-3               6 S9(11) COMP-3               6  S9(12) COMP-3               7 S9(13) COMP-3               7  S9(14) COMP-3               8 S9(15) COMP-3               8  S9(16) COMP-3               9 S9(17) COMP-3               9  S9(18) COMP-3               10  
1. The USAGE Clause can be specified on data items defined with any   level number.
2. The USAGE of a group item is valid for all its sub items.Question : How to read COMP-3 value in a sequential file?You need to use HEX ON commmand to see COMP-3 values in PS 
When you use this command it will show two lines per each record. 
You need to read the comp-3 value from left, top to bottom (in two 
lines) and then move to second character read top to bottom. COMP-3 Example :
+87634 will be displayed as 864 
73C 
-4567 will be displayed as 057 
46D 
last characters represents sign. 
if last character is C or F, that denotes a positive sign.
If last character is D , that denotes a negative sign.Question : Conversion of comp-3 to character  
Displaying COMP-3 characters: Before displaying COMP-3 Move the data 
to usage display variable then display. If it holds Sign then Use SIGN 
LEADING SEPARATE which uses one extra byte for sign and sign will be 
displayed separately.
01	WS-NUMBER PIC S9(03) COMP-3.       
01	WS-NUMBER1 PIC S9(03) SIGN LEADING SEPARATE.MOVE WS-NUMBWER TO WS-NUMBER1DISPLAY WS-NUMBER1 displays data properly.Question : Can i Move LOW-VALUES TO COMP-3 variable?Moving LOW-VALUES is not possible. This will give compiler error.