Summary of Obsolete Language Elements

The elements of the COBOL language listed here are marked as obsolete in the ANSI X3.23-1985 COBOL specification.

• They are to be deleted at the next revision of the standard COBOL specification.
• They will not be enhanced, modified or maintained.
• They should not be used in a conforming X/Open source program.

List of Obsolete Language Elements

• Associating the figurative constant ALL literal where literal is longer than one character with a data item that is numeric or numeric edited.
• The paragraphs AUTHOR, INSTALLATION, DATE-WRITTEN, DATE-COMPILED, and SECURITY within the Identification Division.
• The MEMORY SIZE clause of the OBJECT-COMPUTER paragraph.
• The RERUN clause of the I-O-CONTROL paragraph.
• The MULTIPLE FILE TAPE clause of the I-O-CONTROL paragraph.
• The LABEL RECORDS clause in the file description entry.
• The VALUE OF clause in the file description entry.
• The DATA RECORDS clause in the file description entry.
• The ALTER statement.
• The KEY phrase within the DISABLE statement.
• The KEY phrase within the ENABLE statement.
• The ENTER statement.
• The option to exclude procedure-name in the GO TO statement.
• The REVERSED phrase within the OPEN statement.
• The STOP literal statement.
• The segmentation module.
• The debug module.