6.1.5 "COBOL Language Reference" IBM Library Server

6.1.5 Arithmetic Expressions

Arithmetic expressions are used as operands of certain conditional and arithmetic statements.

An arithmetic expression can consist of any of the following:

An identifier described as a numeric elementary item (including numeric functions)
A numeric literal
The figurative constant ZERO
Identifiers and literals, as defined in items 1, 2, and 3, separated by arithmetic operators
Two arithmetic expressions, as defined in items 1, 2, 3, and/or 4, separated by an arithmetic operator
An arithmetic expression, as defined in items 1, 2, 3, 4, and/or 5, enclosed in parentheses.

Any arithmetic expression can be preceded by a unary operator.

Identifiers and literals appearing in arithmetic expressions must represent either numeric elementary items or numeric literals on which arithmetic can be performed.

If an exponential expression is evaluated as both a positive and a negative number, the result will always be the positive number. The square root of 4, for example,


     4 ** 0.5 (the square root of 4)

is evaluated as +2 and -2. IBM COBOL always returns +2.

If the value of an expression to be raised to a power is zero, the exponent must have a value greater than zero. Otherwise, the size error condition exists. In any case where no real number exists as the result of the evaluation, the size error condition exists.

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6.1.5 Arithmetic Expressions

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