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Status Not under consideration
Workspace COBOL Compilers
Categories z/OS
Created by Guest
Created on May 4, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

Enterprise COBOL for z/OS - Be able to associate an UDF prototype with a COBOL program declaring a RETURNING clause

Hi,

A User Defined Function prototype is generally intended to be associated with a COBOL User Defined Function.

However, it is also possible to associate it with a routine described in an other programming language, particularly a C routine.

It should also be possible to associate an UDF prototype with a COBOL program that declares a return value using a PROCEDURE DIVISION USING RETURNING clause.

By extension, it should be also possible to associate an UDF prototype with an ENTRY declaration in a COBOL program if a change is made to allow the declaration of a return value on an ENTRY statement, (see request COBOLVUE-I-410).

This would allow managing managed User Defined Functions libraries in a single loadmodule, with internal sharing of working declarations and routines, thus facilitating their development and maintenance since they are grouped in a single source text.

Thanks.

Idea priority Low
  • Admin
    Basil Kanneth
    Jul 30, 2025

    This idea has been reviewed and we believe that once we have "program prototypes" implemented, it should satisfy this idea. Since the focus will be towards implementing program prototypes, we are rejecting the details in this specific idea.

    Reply
  • Admin
    Basil Kanneth
    Jun 3, 2025

    This idea is being investigated further.

    Reply
  • Guest
    May 4, 2025

    It is possible to declare a COBOL subprogram with a PROCEDURE DIVISION RETURNING statement using a User Defined Function prototype: according to my tests, compiling a COBOL subprogram with a PROCEDURE DIVISION RETURNING declaration produces a binary code similar to a COBOL Function --> no runtime issues.

    However, it is not possible to validate a COBOL subprogram with a PROCEDURE DIVISION RETURNING declaration using a User Defined Function prototype (which only accepts a Function).

    Reply

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