The table below summarizes the intrinsic functions that are available.
The "arguments" column defines argument type and the "type" column defines the type of the function, as follows:
| Alph | means alphabetic |
| Anum | means alphanumeric |
| Int | means integer |
| Nat | means national |
| Num | means numeric |
| UTF8 | means UTF-8 (support is for native COBOL code only) |
| Function-Name | Arguments | Type | Value Returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| The ABS Function | Int1, or Num1 | Depends upon arguments | The absolute value of argument |
| The ACOS Function | Num1 | Num | Arccosine of Num1 |
| The ANNUITY Function | Num1, or Int2 | Num | Ratio of annuity paid for Int2 periods at interest of Num1 to initial investment of one |
| The ASIN Function | Num1 | Num | Arcsine of Num1 |
| The ATAN Function | Num1 | Num | Arctangent of Num1 |
| The BIT-OF Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or Num1, or Int1, or
|
Anum | Binary representation of argument |
| The BIT-TO-CHAR Function | Anum1 | Anum | Character string of bytes corresponding to binary input |
| The BYTE-LENGTH Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or Num1, or Int1, or
|
Int | Length, in bytes, of argument |
| The CHAR Function | Int1 | Anum | Character in position Int1 of the alphanumeric program collating sequence |
| The CHAR-NATIONAL Function | Int1 | Nat | Character in position Int1 of the national program collating sequence |
| The COS Function | Num1 | Num | Cosine of Num1 |
| The CURRENT-DATE Function | None | Anum | Current date and time and difference from Greenwich Mean Time |
| The DATE-OF-INTEGER Function | Int1 | Int | Standard date equivalent (YYYYMMDD) of integer date |
| The DATE-TO-YYYYMMDD Function | Int1, or Int2 | Int | Argument-1 converted from YYMMDD to YYYYMMDD based on the value of argument-2 |
| The DAY-OF-INTEGER Function | Int1 | Int | Julian date equivalent (YYYYDDD) of integer date |
| The DAY-TO-YYYYDDD Function | Int1, or Int2 | Int | Argument-1 converted from YYDDD to YYYYDDD based on the value of argument-2 |
| The DISPLAY-OF Function | Num1, or
|
Anum | Usage display representation of argument Nat1 |
| The E Function | None | Num | The value of e, the natural base |
| The EXP Function | Num1 | Num | e raised to the power Num1 |
| The EXP10 Function | Num1 | Num | 10 raised to the power Num1 |
| The FACTORIAL Function | Int1 | Int | Factorial of Int1 |
| The FRACTION-PART Function | Num1 | Num | Fraction part of Num1 |
| The HEX-OF Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or Num1, or Int1, or
|
Anum | Hexadecimal representation of argument |
| The HEX-TO-CHAR Function | Anum1 | Anum | Character string of bytes corresponding to hexadecimal input |
| The INTEGER Function | Num1 | Int | The greatest integer not greater than Num1 |
| The INTEGER-OF-DATE Function | Int1 | Int | The integer date equivalent of standard date (YYYYMMDD) |
| The INTEGER-OF-DAY Function | Int1 | Int | The integer date equivalent of Julian date (YYYYDDD) |
| The INTEGER-PART Function | Num1 | Int | Integer part of Num1 |
| The LENGTH Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Int | Length of argument in number of character positions |
| The LENGTH-AN Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or Int1, or Nat1, or Num1 | Int | Length of argument in number of alphanumeric character positions |
| The LOG Function | Num1 | Num | Natural logarithm of Num1 |
| The LOG10 Function | Num1 | Num | Logarithm to base 10 of Num1 |
| The LOWER-CASE Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Depends upon argument* | All letters in the argument are set to lowercase |
| The MAX Function | Alph1 ..., or Anum1 ..., or Int1 ..., or
|
Depends upon arguments* | Value of maximum argument |
| The MEAN Function | Num1 ... | Num | Arithmetic mean of arguments |
| The MEDIAN Function | Num1 ... | Num | Median of arguments |
| The MIDRANGE Function | Num1 ... | Num | Mean of minimum and maximum arguments |
| The MIN Function | Alph1 ..., or Anum1 ..., or Int1 ..., or
|
Depends upon arguments* | Value of minimum argument |
| The MOD Function | Int1, or Int2 | Int | Int1 modulo Int2 |
| The NATIONAL-OF Function | Anum1, or
|
Nat | Usage national representation of argument Anum1 |
| The NUMVAL Function | Anum1, or
|
Num | Numeric value of simple numeric string |
| The NUMVAL-C Function | Anum1 and Anum2, or
|
Num | Numeric value of numeric string with optional commas and currency string |
| The NUMVAL-F Function | Anum1, or Nat1 | Num | A floating-point approximation of the numeric value represented by Anum1 or Nat1 |
| The ORD Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Int | Ordinal position of the argument in collating sequence |
| The ORD-MAX Function | Alph1 ..., or Anum1 ..., or
|
Int | Ordinal position of maximum argument |
| The ORD-MIN Function | Alph1 ..., or Anum1 ..., or
|
Int | Ordinal position of minimum argument |
| The PI Function | None | Num | Value of |
| The PRESENT-VALUE Function | Num1 ..., or Num2 ... | Num | Present value of a series of future period-end amounts, Num2, at a discount rate of Num1 |
| The RANDOM Function | Int1 | Num | Random number |
| The RANGE Function | Int1 ..., or Num1 ... | Depends upon arguments* | Value of maximum argument minus value of minimum arguments |
| The REM Function | Num1, or Num2 | Num | Remainder of Num1/Num2 |
| The REVERSE Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Depends upon argument* | Reverse order of the characters of the argument |
| The SIGN Function | Num1 | Int | The sign of Num1 |
| The SIN Function | Num1 | Num | Sine of Num1 |
| The SQRT Function | Num1 | Num | Square root of Num1 |
| The STANDARD-DEVIATION Function | Num1 ... | Num | Standard deviation of arguments |
| The SUM Function | Int1 ..., or Num1 ... | Depends upon arguments | Sum of arguments |
| The TAN Function | Num1 | Num | Tangent of Num1 |
| The TEST-NUMVAL Function | Anum1, or Nat1 | Int | Zero if argument conforms to NUMVAL function specification, or numeric value indicating the position of first character that doesn't conform. |
| The TEST-NUMVAL-C Function | Anum1, or Nat1 | Int | Zero if argument conforms to NUMVAL-C function specification, or numeric value indicating the position of first character that doesn't conform. |
| The TEST-NUMVAL-F Function | Anum1, or Nat1 | Int | Zero if argument conforms to NUMVAL-C function specification, or numeric value indicating the position of first character that doesn't conform. |
| The TRIM Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Depends upon argument* | Argument with leading spaces, trailing spaces, or both, removed |
| The ULENGTH Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Int | Number of characters in argument-1 |
| The UPOS Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or Int1, or
|
Int | Position of nth UTF-8 or UTF-16 char in argument-1 |
| The UPPER-CASE Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Depends upon argument* | All letters in the argument are set to uppercase |
| The USUBSTR Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or Num1, or Num2, or
|
Anum | Substring of a character string argument that is encoded in UTF-8 or UTF-16 |
| The USUPPLEMENTARY Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Int | Integer value that is equal to the index of the first Unicode supplementary character in a character string argument that is encoded in UTF-8 or UTF-16 |
| The UVALID Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or
|
Int | Zero if character string consists of valid Unicode UTF-8 or UTF-16 data; non-zero if not. |
| The UWIDTH Function | Alph1, or Anum1, or Int1, or
|
Int | integer value that is equal to the width in bytes of the nth UTF-8 or UTF-16 character in a character string |
| The VARIANCE Function | Num1 ... | Num | Variance of argument |
| The WHEN-COMPILED Function | None | Anum | Date and time program was compiled |
| The YEAR-TO-YYYY Function | Int1, or Int2 | Int | Argument-1 converted from YY to YYYY based on the value of argument-2 |
* A function that has only alphabetic arguments is type alphanumeric.