8.1.10.2 "COBOL Language Reference" IBM Library Server

8.1.10.2 Comparison Operation

The comparison operation to determine text replacement starts with the leftmost source program text word following the REPLACE statement, and with the first pseudo-text-1. Pseudo-text-1 is compared to an equivalent number of contiguous source program text words. Pseudo-text-1 matches the source program text if, and only if, the ordered sequence of text words that forms pseudo-text-1 is equal, character for character, to the ordered sequence of source program text words.

For purposes of matching, each occurrence of a separator comma, semicolon, and space, and each sequence of one or more space separators is considered to be a single space.

X However, when pseudo-text-1 consists solely of a separator comma or
X semicolon, it participates in the match as a text word (in this case, the
X space following the comma or semicolon separator can be omitted).

If no match occurs, the comparison is repeated with each successive occurrence of pseudo-text-1, until either a match is found or there is no next successive occurrence of pseudo-text-1.

When all occurrences of pseudo-text-1 have been compared and no match has occurred, the next successive source program text word is then considered as the leftmost source program text word, and the comparison cycle starts again with the first occurrence of pseudo-text-1.

Whenever a match occurs between pseudo-text-1 and the source program text, the corresponding pseudo-text-2 replaces the matched text in the source program. The source program text word immediately following the rightmost text word that participated in the match is then considered as the leftmost source program text word. The comparison cycle starts again with the first occurrence of pseudo-text-1.

The comparison operation continues until the rightmost text word in the source program text which is within the scope of the REPLACE statement has either participated in a match or been considered as a leftmost source program text word and participated in a complete comparison cycle.

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8.1.10.2 Comparison Operation

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