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misi01 · Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2021 7:51 am Post subject: Initaiize group variable

I've seen the following code all over the place:-

kolusu · Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2021 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: Initaiize group variable

Terry_Heinze · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 10:00 am Post subject:

One option would be to INITIALIZE the copybook one time, save it off, and every time thereafter, move the saved off initialized copybook to copybook.
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....Terry

haatvedt · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 12:21 pm Post subject:

One thing to consider is that the Initialize verb does NOTHING to FILLER areas and as such they would have garbage in them without the preceeding MOVE SPACES
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Chuck Haatvedt

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Terry_Heinze · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:43 am Post subject:

Good point. Be sure to read all about INITIALIZE in the manual. It does/does not do what you might expect.
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....Terry

Spolacek · Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:28 am Post subject:

If you're using COBOL version 6, there's an extension to the INITIALIZE verb that will also initialize FILLER fields.

Here's how the COBOL Language Reference describes it:

misi01 · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 7:51 am Post subject:

Thanks for the FILLER comment.
Talking about performance, my 2 cents' worth would also be for large tables. I always initialize the first line in the table, then I loop round moving row 1 to rows 2-n. Much faster and cheaper.
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Michael