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Status Future consideration
Workspace COBOL Compilers
Categories z/OS
Created by Guest
Created on Aug 23, 2022

Improved storage usage when using moves to change encodings

We are using the functions display-of and national-of to dynamically change between encodings.

Like this:

MOVE FUNCTION DISPLAY-OF (

FUNCTION NATIONAL-OF (

INPUT-DATA (1:INPUT-LENGTH),

CHARSET-CCSID), 277)

TO OUTPUT-DATA (1:EXPECTED-OUTPUT-LENGTH)

INPUT-DATA and OUTPUT-DATA are located in LINKAGE section as very large PIC X variables, and are dynamically allocated, to only contain the amount of storage we need.

This code is used from Rexx in a TSO environment, and in batch environments.

In batch, we have no problems with this, but in the TSO environment, the program dumps before executing a line of code.

We found that this is because COBOL allocates a very large amount of storage, for that move statement.

This is because COBOL determines the maximum possible amount needed at compile time, and then allocates that at runtime, we dump in TSO environment.

Splitting the move into two, removes this issue.

We would request an improvement, that determines the amount of storage needed at runtime, instead of at compile time.

Thank you

Idea priority Low
  • Admin
    Basil Kanneth
    Reply
    |
    Sep 29, 2022

    Thanks. This Idea is being accepted for a future release and will be updated once put into plan.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Sep 21, 2022
     WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
    01 INPUT-LENGTH PIC 9(9) COMP-5
    01 OUTPUT-LENGTH PIC 9(9) COMP-5
    01 WS-POINTER USAGE IS POINTER.
    LINKAGE SECTION.
    01 INPUT-DATA.
    03 PIC X(99999).
    01 OUTPUT-DATA.
    03 PIC X(99999).

    PROCEDURE DIVISION
    MOVE 11 TO INPUT-LENGTH
    MOVE 22 TO OUTPUT-LENGTH
    ALLOCATE INPUT-LENGTH CHARACTERS RETURNING WS-POINTER
    SET ADDRESS OF INPUT-DATA TO WS-POINTER
    ALLOCATE OUTPUT-LENGTH CHARACTERS RETURNING WS-POINTER
    SET ADDRESS OF OUTPUT-DATA TO WS-POINTER
    MOVE 'HELLO WORLD' TO INPUT-DATA
    MOVE FUNCTION DISPLAY-OF (
    FUNCTION NATIONAL-OF (
    INPUT-DATA (1:INPUT-LENGTH),
    1208), 277)
    TO OUTPUT-DATA (1:OUTPUT-LENGTH)

    *Note that 1208 is just an example here. The input to INPUT-DATA and CCSID to convert from, is received as input to the program.
  • Admin
    Basil Kanneth
    Reply
    |
    Sep 20, 2022

    Hi, can you please provide the definitions of the data items and a test case that demonstrates the issue?