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[ravii_cbe]

What is the difference b/w EVALUATE (A AND B) Vs EVALUATE (A Also B).

When I tried EVALUATE (A also B) also C . I didn't get compile time error. when I use AND instead of AND i got compiling error. Is it the difference b/w these two?


From
Ravi
_________________
Thanks & Regards
M. RaviShankar

[Dibakar]

Its just syntax. 'Also' is allowed and 'And' is not.

[kolusu]

Ravi,

ALSO in an EVALAUATE statement separates selection subjects within a set of selection subjects and also separates selection objects within a set of selection objects.

Check this link for a better understanding of EVALUATE statement.

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/IGYLR205/6.2.13?DT=20000927030801

Hope this helps...

cheers

kolusu

[slade]

Some don't cotton to the ALSO approach. They see it as obscure and misleading. If you feel the same way you can try the following, it gives the "effect" of an AND:

EVALUATE TRUE
WHEN WS-A = x AND WS-B = y
blah, blah, blah1
WHEN WS-A = x OR WS-B = y
blah, blah, blah2
END-EVALUATE

In fact, any valid conditional expression, simple or complex, can be used.

Jack

[Dibakar]

Though it might be slower but I myself prefer 'EVALUATE TRUE' because it is very easy to add a new condition while modification. Say, in slade's example, I can easily add "WHEN WS-C = 'Z'".

Since we don't have Else-If in Cobol so I even prefer using Evaluate instead of If because there is always a chance that your analysis was wrong and you need to next few more Ifs in the earlier If. And then it becomes very unreadable.

Dibakar.

[slade]

I like to alternate IFs and EVALs. I seems to "read" better. Fer instance:

IF FLD-A = 1
IF FLD-B = 46
do this....

IF FLD-A = 1
EVALUATE FLD-B
WHEN 46
do this....

I don't know, it just seems to flow better. This is the way I'd present the idea to the reader if we were talking face to face.