cobol RELEASE statement RELEASE a record to a SORT INPUT PROCEDURE
Example
This is a contrived sample. It sorts records based on an ALPHABET that has upper and lower case characters together, with A and a swapped compared to the other letters. This was done on purpose to demonstrate the possibilities. The SORT algorithm reader retrieves records using RELEASE in the INPUT PROCEDURE. The OUTPUT PROCEDURE uses RETURN for the SORT algorithm writer.
GCobol >>SOURCE FORMAT IS FIXED
******************************************************************
* Purpose: A GnuCOBOL SORT verb example
* Tectonics: cobc -x sorting.cob
* ./sorting <input >output
* or simply
* ./sorting
* for keyboard and screen demos
******************************************************************
identification division.
program-id. sorting.
environment division.
configuration section.
* This sets up a sort order lower/upper except for "A" and "a"
special-names.
alphabet mixed is " AabBcCdDeEfFgGhHiIjJkKlLmMnNoOpPqQrRsStTu
-"UvVwWxXyYzZ0123456789".
input-output section.
file-control.
select sort-in
assign keyboard
organization is line sequential.
select sort-out
assign display
organization is line sequential.
select sort-work
assign "sortwork".
data division.
file section.
fd sort-in.
01 in-rec pic x(255).
fd sort-out.
01 out-rec pic x(255).
sd sort-work.
01 work-rec pic x(255).
working-storage section.
01 loop-flag pic x value low-value.
procedure division.
sort sort-work
on descending key work-rec
collating sequence is mixed
input procedure is sort-transform
output procedure is output-uppercase.
display sort-return.
goback.
******************************************************************
sort-transform.
move low-value to loop-flag
open input sort-in
read sort-in
at end move high-value to loop-flag
end-read
perform
until loop-flag = high-value
move in-rec to work-rec
RELEASE work-rec
read sort-in
at end move high-value to loop-flag
end-read
end-perform
close sort-in
.
******************************************************************
output-uppercase.
move low-value to loop-flag
open output sort-out
return sort-work
at end move high-value to loop-flag
end-return
perform
until loop-flag = high-value
move work-rec to out-rec
write out-rec end-write
return sort-work
at end move high-value to loop-flag
end-return
end-perform
close sort-out
.
exit program.
end program sorting.
