Re: error: invalid expression on USAGE POINTER item

[J Leslie Turriff]

        Um... where is the second compile?  And what version of COBOL are you 
emulating?

        In any case, AFAIK this is proper operation.  As the IBM Z/OS Language 
Reference V6.2 states,
|When the USAGE clause is not specified at either the group or elementary 
level, a usage clause is
implied with:
| v Usage DISPLAY when the PICTURE clause contains only symbols other than G or 
N
| v Usage NATIONAL when the PICTURE clause contains only one or more of the   
symbol N and
the NSYMBOL(NATIONAL) compiler option is in effect
| v Usage DISPLAY-1 when the PICTURE clause contains one or more of the symbol 
N and the
NSYMBOL(DBCS) compiler option is in effect

        So effectively, USAGE defaults to one of the DISPLAY modes, so C-W 
can't be used as a
POINTER variable.

Leslie

On 2023-05-14 19:02:44 Michael Potter wrote:
> Vincent Coen suggested I report this as a bug.
>
> Two compiles of same code:
>
> [okicks@vm-openkicks OC_GrpLvlPointer]$ cobc GRPPOINT.cbl
> GRPPOINT.cbl:20: error: invalid expression
>
> [okicks@vm-openkicks OC_GrpLvlPointer]$ cobc -V
> cobc (GnuCOBOL) 4.0-early-dev.0
> Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
> <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software; see the source
> for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY
> or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Written by Keisuke Nishida, Roger
> While, Ron Norman, Simon Sobisch, Edward Hart Built     Feb 10 2023
> 13:51:10
> Packaged  Feb 10 2023 18:49:59 UTC
> C version "11.3.1 20220421 (Red Hat 11.3.1-2)"
>
> [okicks@vm-openkicks OC_GrpLvlPointer]$ cat GRPPOINT.cbl
>
>        IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
>        PROGRAM-ID.    GRPPOINT.
>        AUTHOR.        Replatform Technologies, LLC.
>        ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
>        DATA DIVISION.
>        WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
>            01 A-W    USAGE POINTER.
>               03   B-W USAGE POINTER.
>               03   C-W.
>        LINKAGE SECTION.
>        PROCEDURE DIVISION.
>            DISPLAY 'IN GRPPOINT'
>            SET B-W to NULL
>            SET C-W to NULL
>
>            IF B-W NOT = NULL
>                    DISPLAY "B NOT NULL"
>            END-IF
>            IF C-W NOT = NULL
>                    DISPLAY "C NOT NULL"
>            END-IF
>            STOP RUN
>
> ========================================
> pottmi@ubuntu ~/gitlab/cobolcompilertests/OC_GrpLvlPointer
>  % cobc GRPPOINT.cbl
> GRPPOINT.cbl:9: error: PICTURE clause required for 'C-W'
> GRPPOINT.cbl:14: error: SET target 'C-W' is not numeric, an INDEX or a
> POINTER GRPPOINT.cbl:20: error: invalid expression
> pottmi@ubuntu ~/gitlab/cobolcompilertests/OC_GrpLvlPointer
>  % cobc -V
> cobc (GnuCOBOL) 4.0-early-dev.0
> Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
> <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software; see the source
> for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY
> or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Written by Keisuke Nishida, Roger
> While, Ron Norman, Simon Sobisch, Edward Hart Built     Oct 13 2021
> 18:23:24
> Packaged  Oct 14 2021 01:18:06 UTC
> C version "9.3.0"
> pottmi@ubuntu ~/gitlab/cobolcompilertests/OC_GrpLvlPointer
>  % cat GRPPOINT.cbl
>        IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
>        PROGRAM-ID.    GRPPOINT.
>        AUTHOR.        Replatform Technologies, LLC.
>        ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
>        DATA DIVISION.
>        WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
>            01 A-W    USAGE POINTER.
>               03   B-W USAGE POINTER.
>               03   C-W.
>        LINKAGE SECTION.
>        PROCEDURE DIVISION.
>            DISPLAY 'IN GRPPOINT'
>            SET B-W to NULL
>            SET C-W to NULL
>
>            IF B-W NOT = NULL
>                    DISPLAY "B NOT NULL"
>            END-IF
>
>            IF C-W NOT = NULL
>                    DISPLAY "C NOT NULL"
>            END-IF
>
>            STOP RUN
>            .
--
Platform: Linux
Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.4 (x86_64)