Symbols That Can Appear More Than Once

The following symbols can appear more than once in one PICTURE character-string:

         A  B  P  X  Z  9  0  /  ,  +  -  *  cs
 X       G  N

At least one of the symbols A, X, Z, 9, or *, or at least two of the symbols +, -, or cs must be present in a PICTURE string.

X The symbol G or N can appear alone in the PICTURE character-string.

An unsigned nonzero integer enclosed in parentheses immediately following any of these symbols specifies the number of consecutive occurrences of that symbol.

Example: The following two PICTURE clause specifications are equivalent:

         PICTURE IS $99999.99CR

         PICTURE IS $9(5).9(2)CR

Symbols That Can Appear Only Once

The following symbols can appear only once in one PICTURE character-string:

         S  V  .  CR  DB
 X       E

Except for the PICTURE symbol V, each time any of the above symbols appears in the character-string, it represents an occurrence of that character or set of allowable characters in the data item.

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