Command-line arguments

ARGUMENT-VALUE

GnuCOBOL exposes command-line arguments through ACCEPT. ARGUMENT-VALUE returns the current argument, and ARGUMENT-NUMBER says which one it is:

ACCEPT WS-ARG FROM ARGUMENT-VALUE. ACCEPT WS-N FROM ARGUMENT-NUMBER.

ARGUMENT-NUMBER

Loop over the arguments by counting from 1 up, accepting each value in turn. GnuCOBOL also stores the raw command line in the special register COMMAND-LINE for custom parsing:

MOVE 1 TO WS-N. PERFORM UNTIL WS-N = 0 ACCEPT WS-ARG FROM ARGUMENT-VALUE DISPLAY "Arg: " WS-ARG ADD 1 TO WS-N IF WS-ARG = SPACE MOVE 0 TO WS-N END-IF END-PERFORM.

Environment variables

ACCEPT FROM ENVIRONMENT reads a variable from the process environment, which is the cleanest way to pass configuration to a batch program without editing its source:

ACCEPT WS-PATH FROM ENVIRONMENT "PAYROLL-DIR".

Next: Environment and RETURN-CODE

Article author: Arthur Isaev